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In March 2010, the Pew Internet and American Life Project (in partnership with the California Healthcare Foundation) released a long-awaited report focusing on how people with chronic medical conditions (such as high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer) use the Internet. While it is important to understand how the general population is using the Internet for health-related purposes, examining chronic patients' online activities is critical.  This because people with chronic conditions are more likely to:

• Be engaged with their care over the long-term
• Carefully research medications in order to better understand their benefits and risks

From a health marketing communications perspective, recognizing how people with chronic conditions use the Internet is the first step toward understanding which channels (e.g., blogs, social networks) are going to be most effective and efficient.

Key Data from this Study

Following are some of the key results of this study organized by area of interest.

Who Has Chronic Conditions?

Pew reports that people with chronic conditions: 

• Tend to be age 50+
• Live in lower-income households
• Make up a large percentage of e-patients

How People With Chronic Conditions Use the Internet and Mobile

According to Pew, people with chronic conditions: 

• Are less likely to have Internet access versus the general population (62% vs. 81%)
  • The report's lead author, Susannah Fox, notes that "living with a heart condition, lung condition, high blood pressure, diabetes, and/or cancer has an independent, negative effect on someone’s likelihood to have Internet access"
  • In fact, after controlling for other factors that impact Internet access (such as race, education and ethnicity) those with chronic conditions are more likely to be offline
• Are more likely to participate in online discussions via blogs and forums; in fact, they are very willing to share what they know with peers
• Are less likely to own mobile phones and live in cell-phone only households
• Use the Internet to find information about medical treatments or procedures
• Look up information (48%) on prescription or over the counter medications
• Are not heavy users of the Internet; 81% go online less than once per week
• Create online content (one in five)
• Are less likely to use social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace

For more information from this study, please see the document embedded below.