The Internet as a health guide

Every second German citizen regularly informs about the topic range health

29/08/2011

Every second German citizen now uses the Internet regularly or irregularly to research health. Five years ago, it was still 50 percent of Internet users.

The Internet has since become a veritable treasure trove of knowledge acquisition. One top area is the topic of health. More and more Germans search for guidebooks and health websites using a search engine like Google or Bing. According to the industry association „Bitkom“ In the past year, nearly 28 million Germans used the Internet to find out about illness, symptoms, healthy nutrition or natural medicine. That is about 60 percent of all Germans who have an Internet connection. According to the association, the figures submitted were provided by the European statistics office „Eurostat“ submitted and determined. In the year 2006, exactly five years ago, 50 percent of the users informed themselves about the topic of health. Accordingly, there is an increase of more than 10 percent.

More Germans with their own Internet connection
In Germany, according to measurements of „Research Group Elections“ About 74 percent of adults have their own online connection. A good 80 percent of German adolescents use the Internet regularly. However, the collection of key figures is not completely uniform and can be determined exactly as more and more internet-enabled smartphones are in circulation, which were not recorded in this evaluation. In 2005 it was only about half of the Germans. One in two Germans between the ages of 16 and 74 uses the Web to obtain relevant health topics. In 2006, it was 34 percent of German citizens. For the year 2005, no exact figures have yet been collected.

Germany in top position
In a European comparison, Germany occupies a leading position in health research. Higher quotas were only achieved in Luxembourg (58 percent), Finland (57 percent), Denmark (52 percent) and the Netherlands (50 percent). On average, every third citizen in the European Union (EU) looks for health tips or special topics between 16 and 74 years of age.

Online sales of medicines
The marketing of medicines on the Internet is also playing an increasingly important role. According to the representative survey of the association „Bitkom“ Every sixth citizen with an Internet connection has already ordered a drug online. In absolute terms, around nine million Germans aged 14 and over have already bought a drug in an online pharmacy or other mail order business.

The Internet should under no circumstances replace the visit to the doctor or alternative practitioner. But the Web can serve, for example, to mediate general home remedies for mild ailments. "The Internet is an almost infinite source of information on health," says Bitkom Vice President Heinz Paul Bonn. Because it offers for example „old home remedies for colds, tips for a healthy diet or the opportunity to exchange experiences in more serious diseases - but it does not replace a doctor visit. "The latter, for example, creates a good network and knowledge exchange for those suffering from rare diseases, but caution is advised: „If you read a lot of forum posts without the necessary background knowledge, you can quickly get into alleged illnesses.“, warns Gritli Bertram, social worker from Hannover. Anxiety disorders can manifest themselves. There is also a technical term for these Internet users: „Cyberchonder“. (Sb)

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Picture: Alexandra H.