Health Information and CAM Online Search

The goal of this study is to investigate the use of the Internet as a source of health-related information and information about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to young people. A special focus of the study are the Internet and web resources that the participants prefer to use. An online survey was used to assess the frequency of use of the Internet to search for health-related information and information on complementary and alternative medicine and the specific web sources that young users most frequently use. The total number of participants was 731, who were surveyed between July 2018 and April 2020. All of them were aged between 18 and 30. There were 543 female and 188 male respondents. Most of the participants (69%) use a computer every day and 76% define themselves as having good or excellent computer literacy. Almost three-quarters of the participants (71%) search for health-related information on the Internet and they use specialized sites and/or patients’ forums. Only 38% reported they seek information related to alternative and complementary medicine. The use of Internet for searching health-related information and information on complementary and alternative medicine among young people is relatively high. However, there are some differences in the trends between the two types of information. Information on complementary and alternative medicine is most often searched for in forums and through the opinions of other patients. General health-related information is widely searched for across specialized websites.