Hello, svenia-ga!
You have posed an interesting question! Here is what I have found.....
A 1999 Harris Poll survey found that out of an estimated 88 million
internet users in the United States, “68% or 60 million have used the
internet in the last twelve months to look for healthcare information
related to a particular disease or medical condition.” In fact, the
current trend for healthcare facilities, such as University of Utah
Hospital and Ohio State Medical Center, is to provide online health
sites so patients can access a wealth of medical information and
advice about healthier lifestyles. See “Patient Education in Primary
Care” at http://www.va.gov/visns/visn02/emp/education/apr99penewsltr.pdf
An 2001 press release by InteliHealth cites a report by the Pew
Internet and American Life Project stating that “approximately half of
all Internet users who have gone online for medical information (48
percent) say the advice they found on the Web has improved the way
they take care of themselves, and 41 percent of health seekers say
that in their most recent search, the information they found online
influenced a major medical decision they had to make, such as how to
treat a medical condition or whether to get a second opinion.” Read
“INTELIHEALTH® AWARDED ONE OF FIRST HEALTH WEBSITE ACCREDITATIONS,”
(1/12/2001) at http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/356/21215/342289.html
To read the entire report by Pew Internet and American Life, titled
the “Online Healthcare Revolution: How the Web Helps Americans Take
Better Care of Themselves.” (11/26/2000) go to
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=26
The National Association for Alternative Medicine has also noted the
power of internet health websites in “helping people make important
lifestyle changes,” and promotes self-education and empowerment by
listing a wealth of heart-related websites on their site at
http://naam- heart.lle.org/websites.htm
The Mayo Clinic recently released the results of a survey of 9,324
Fortune 1000 company employees that use the clinic’s’ “e-Health
Package,” a “customized online health management tool employees and
their families can use to manage illness and stay healthy.” The
survey revealed that “a majority of users (78 percent) felt the Mayo
Clinic custom site had encouraged them to make positive lifestyle
changes for better health. The survey also revealed a majority of
users (57 percent) felt the site had helped them to make better health
care decisions.” Additionally, “survey findings include 99 percent
saying the site provides reliable information, 73 percent reporting
the site has increased their confidence in making health care
decisions, and 51 percent responding that the site helps them
communicate better with their health care provider. The article,
titled “Survey Finds Company e-Health Web Sites Influence Employees to
Make Positive Lifestyle Changes,” Mayo Clinic (1/30/2002) may be found
at http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2002-mchi/217.html
The International Electronic Journal of Health Education(2000) has
an interesting article by Gerald C. Hyner, PhD, President, Society of
Prospective Medicine titled “Health Education and Prospective
Medicine: Common Concerns and Shared Goals,” which has some
interesting information regarding the particulars of your question.The
article focuses on the evolution of health assessments and health risk
appraisals used by doctors and patients. Some excerpts follow:
Lewis C. Robbins, MD, an important voice in the US Public Health
Service, “was convinced that if patients were presented with a
personalized profile of the precursors of diseases to which they were
predisposed, the magnitude that each risk factor contributed to their
premature mortality, and
how these risks could be modified, they would more likely adopt
behavior change strategies.”
“The literature supports the success of carefully planned,
coordinated and comprehensive health education interventions in a
variety of settings. We know that many variables interact with health
promotion interventions including subjects' knowledge, beliefs,
cultural influences, social and environmental factors, and willingness
to change their behaviors. Studies have shown that risk appraisals
alone are unlikely to facilitate long-term healthy behavior change.
However, as a part of a comprehensive health promotion intervention,
the health risk appraisal may be an important means of enhancing the
educational experience, while providing the health educator with a
means of measuring the effectiveness of the overall program.”
“Disease specific instruments such as the National Cancer
Institutes' breast cancer tool allow both practitioners and potential
patients an opportunity to explore risk reduction options.
Personalized profiles are provided by most health-oriented websites
and are a major feature of health promotion textbooks, magazines,
books and articles for the lay public.”
The article ends with the realization that a lot more remains to be
done before the medical community and the public are fully integrated
into a system that is geared more toward prevention than crisis
management. Read the entire article at
http://216.239.33.100/search?q=cache:AhAmSR3wfn8C:www.iejhe.org/3special/pdf/hyner.pdf+patient+lifestyle+change+health+websites&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
The new trend toward “ehealth” has allowed an unprecedented number
of adults to use the Web to find medical information, thus taking
charge of their health in a way never before possible. Excerpts from
an article on the new ehealth technology follow:
“While over 15,000 healthcare sites already exist online, only a few
hundred are exclusively web-based. Numbers in both camps are growing
very rapidly, however. They are offering unprecedented services and
benefits to their users. Consumer demand is very high. An estimated 60
million adults used the Web to find health related information in 1998
(Kaufman, 1999). In a survey of 3,269 Internet users, Ehealth users
reported that finding disease specific information was their number
one application of the technology (Intel, 2000).”
“ With the Internet, patients increasingly have immediate access to
worldwide medical databases, libraries, conference proceedings, and
medical records. They can log onto MEDLINE for original journal
articles, access textbook collections, drug databases, diagnostic
cookbooks, and disease-specific sites. As a result, patients are
taking more responsibility for their healthcare decisions and relying
less upon individual practitioners (Ferguson, 1997, 1998). Ehealth
empowers individuals by allowing them to make their own informed
decisions regarding personal healthcare (Spielberg, 1998). Spheres of
expertise traditionally held exclusively by professionals are now open
to the public at large. Patients are presenting themselves for
treatment, often armed with information they found on the Internet,
and are seeking answers to questions based upon that information. They
are also helping themselves and each other, with or without the help
of professionals.”
“As patients change, so will professionals. Approaching patients
with an authoritarian, all-knowing, calling-the-shots attitude will no
longer be tenable for professionals as patients gain equal access to
information sources online. Professionals will need to become more
specialized and learn to accommodate and compliment their newly
empowered patients, rather than expecting to be the unquestioned
expert.”
To read the full article, titled “Telehealth: “Delivering
Behavorial Telehelath via the Internet – eHealth,” by Marlene Maheu.
TeleheathNet (2/01/2000), go to
http://telehealth.net/articles/deliver.html
Online health care services are one way that health insurance
companies, in particular, are trying to garner new clients and keep
existing ones informed of ways they can manage their illnesses and
change their lifestyle. Blue Cross provides an example of one company
that has responded to “consumer requests for self-care” by
establishing “MyLifePath.com.” Pacificare is another company that has
promoted self-care and lifestyle change by providing a “series of
self-directed, lifestyle management programs tied to diabetes, heart
health and pregnancy.”
The value of the Internet in promoting self-care and lifestyle
change is noted by Arnold Milstein, MD. Empowering consumers to take
charge of their health is desirable for insurance companies,
physicians and patients alike. “If you can use a computer to access
information that is personally customized to you and to your condition
and if the information helps you manage your illness with the
monitoring of your doctor, that would be the greatest value of the
internet in healthcare,” says Milstein.
The entire article, “Plan Websites Reach Out,” by Mary Edlin.
Healthplan (May/June 2000) can be found at
http://www.consumerhi.com/mediaplacement11.pdf
I hope this helps to give you some insight and answers to your
question!
umiat-ga
Google Search
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