Turned on or turned off? Accessing health information on the Internet

Authors

Flis Henwood, University of BrightonFollow
Sally Wyatt, University of AmsterdamFollow
Angie Hart, University of BrightonFollow
Julie Smith, University of BrightonFollow

Abstract

It is often claimed that Internet access provides people with more and better health information, resulting in better-informed patients who engage in more reflexive and equal negotiations with their doctors. Counter arguments suggest that Internet information overload will increase levels of anxiety and confusion amongst health care consumers, resulting in their disempowerment. This paper discusses on-going research investigating the ways Internet users and non-users access and manage information about specific health treatments. The paper describes how our research design and methodology is enabling us to avoid the generalisations and tendencies towards technological determinism found in much previous research in this field.

Recommended Citation

Henwood, Flis; Wyatt, Sally; Hart, Angie; and Smith, Julie (2002) "Turned on or turned off? Accessing health information on the Internet," Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems: Vol. 14: Iss. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/sjis/vol14/iss2/4