Seniors prepared for online health information resources

Healthcare Financial Management, Feb, 2005

A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey of older Americans finds that fewer than one in three (31 percent) seniors (age 65 and older) have ever gone online, but that more than two of every three (70 percent) individuals in the next generation (age 50 to 64) have done so.

The difference between the two groups indicates that online resources for health information may soon play a much larger role for older Americans. Twenty-one percent of seniors have gone online to look for health information compared with 53 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds; and 8 percent of seniors get "a lot" of health information online compared with 24 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds.

To read the survey, e-health and the Elderly: How Seniors Use the Internet for Health, go to www.kaisernetwork.org/ health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display:detail&hc=1336