Demographics and attitudes of chronic-pain patients who seek online pain-related medical information: implications for healthcare providers

Abstract

Objective: To identify the demographics, search characteristics, and attitudes of chronic-pain patients who access online pain-related medical information.

Design: This is a cross-sectional survey study.

Results: Ninety percent of patients had access to the Internet; 63% of patients used the Internet to obtain online pain-related medical information, of which 57% and 55% believed that the information was "useful" and "credible," respectively. Ninety-five percent of current online pain-related medical information users and 52% of nonusers planned to use the Internet in the future to obtain online pain-related medical information. Only half of our subjects ever shared the information found on Internet with their treating healthcare provider.

Conclusions: A large proportion of chronic-pain patients use the Internet to obtain online pain-related medical information. This behavior was found to show significant correlation with patients' level of education. Despite multiple previous studies suggesting inaccurate and low quality of online medical information, most of the patients felt confident in the credibility of online pain-related medical information obtained. Furthermore, many patients choose not to share this information with their healthcare providers. Healthcare providers must acknowledge the growing importance of Internet-based health information, be prepared to entertain questions and assist patients in evaluating the quality of online pain-related medical information, and possibly proactively suggest quality third-party pain-related websites.