The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7250 p712
24 May 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
JAMA abstract (more)

Few Americans buy medicines on the internet

Only five per cent of American internet users have obtained medicines from online pharmacies, according to a survey.

The survey covered 4,764 internet users across the United States drawn from a research pool of 60,000 households. Of these, 39.7 per cent had used the internet within the previous year to look for health information, although less than 10 per cent were doing so more than once a month. They were also asked whether they used e-mail or the internet to communicate with others about health problems. Just over 25 per cent had contaced friends or family in the past year, 11.2 per cent had been in touch with other people with similar medical conditions or concerns and 6 per cent had communicated with a health professional.

Asked about the use of the internet to obtain prescription medicines, 5 per cent had purchased medicines and 33 per cent had sought further information about a product.

Around half of the internet users who reported that they had one or more of five chronic medical conditions — cancer, depression, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension — said that they believed that they had gained a better insight into their condition or its treatment. Almost all respondents said that using e-mail or the internet had not affected the number of times they had visited or telephoned a health professional. Smaller but nearly equal numbers of the rest said that it had either increased or decreased their consultation rate.

The study authors say that internet use for health purposes in the survey was much lower than the 80 per cent quoted in some highly publicised reports but in line with other studies. Although information seeking was common, it appears to be having only a limited effect on either treatment decisions or the use of health care services. The study appears in the 14 May issue of JAMA (2003;289:2400).