Internet use by Patients with Psychiatric Disorders Searching for Medical Information

Abstract

Aims:

Despite the increasing use of the Internet to seek medical information, little is known about the web search for mental health information among psychiatric patients. We aimed to identify the patients’ demographic and clinical characteristics that better predict the search for medical information, as well as the most consulted aspects of psychiatric disorders.

Method:

Over a one-month period, a consecutive series of patients followed at one Spanish hospital psychiatric outpatient clinic completed a 13-item questionnaire about their personal Internet use.

Results:

Among the 144 participating patients (72% women), 61% reported having ever used the Internet, with lower search rates for general health (34%) and mental health (22%) data. There were no differences by sex, but Internet use was more frequent among younger and higher-educated patients, as well as among those with eating disorders and personality disorders. Patients were most interested in diagnosis and treatment facets. A model with age (exp.β=1.05; p=.001) and high-school education (exp.β=5.55; p=.004) predicted searching for general medical information and correctly classified 75% of the sample (R²=0.3; p=0.004). Age was the only variable predicting specific search about mental health (exp.β=1.05; p=.001), and correctly classified 76% of patients (R²=0.2; p=0.001).

Conclusions:

The results of this one-site pilot study went in the anticipated direction and suggest that possible differences in the access to Internet according to the diagnostic group merit further research with multi-centre, larger samples.