ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2017
eHealth Search Patterns: A Comparison of Private and Public Health Care Markets Using Online Panel Data.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Building an Ethical Framework for European Pharmacists in e-Pharmacies.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- A critical analysis of online patient-directed resources on catheter ablation for ventricular arrhythmias.Journal of arrhythmia · 2025Article
- Interactivity, Quality, and Content of Websites Promoting Health Behaviors During Infancy: 6-Year Update of the Systematic Assessment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- Patterns of eHealth Website User Engagement Based on Cross-site Clickstream Data: Correlational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Valuable Genomes: Taxonomy and Archetypes of Business Models in Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Article
- A Revised Model of Trust in Internet-Based Health Information and Advice: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Article
- Rethinking the Meaning of Cloud Computing for Health Care: A Taxonomic Perspective and Future Research Directions.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Article
- Automatic Classification of Users' Health Information Need Context: Logistic Regression Analysis of Mouse-Click and Eye-Tracker Data.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatient and consumer access to eHealth information is of crucial importance because of its role in patient-centered medicine and to improve knowledge about general aspects of health and medical topics.
objectivesThe objectives were to analyze and compare eHealth search patterns in a private (United States) and a public (United Kingdom) health care market.
methodsA new taxonomy of eHealth websites is proposed to organize the largest eHealth websites. An online measurement framework is developed that provides a precise and detailed measurement system. Online panel data are used to accurately track and analyze detailed search behavior across 100 of the largest eHealth websites in the US and UK health care markets.
resultsThe health, medical, and lifestyle categories account for approximately 90% of online activity, and e-pharmacies, social media, and professional categories account for the remaining 10% of online activity. Overall search penetration of eHealth websites is significantly higher in the private (United States) than the public market (United Kingdom). Almost twice the number of eHealth users in the private market have adopted online search in the health and lifestyle categories and also spend more time per website than those in the public market. The use of medical websites for specific conditions is almost identical in both markets. The allocation of search effort across categories is similar in both the markets. For all categories, the vast majority of eHealth users only access one website within each category. Those that conduct a search of two or more websites display very narrow search patterns. All users spend relatively little time on eHealth, that is, 3-7 minutes per website.
conclusionsThe proposed online measurement framework exploits online panel data to provide a powerful and objective method of analyzing and exploring eHealth behavior. The private health care system does appear to have an influence on eHealth search behavior in terms of search penetration and time spent per website in the health and lifestyle categories. Two explanations are offered: (1) the personal incentive of medical costs in the private market incentivizes users to conduct online search; and (2) health care information is more easily accessible through health care professionals in the United Kingdom compared with the United States. However, the use of medical websites is almost identical, suggesting that patients interested in a specific condition have a motivation to search and evaluate health information, irrespective of the health care market. The relatively low level of search in terms of the number of websites accessed and the average time per website raise important questions about the actual level of patient informedness in both the markets. Areas for future research are outlined.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.