[Health-related use of the Internet in the Norwegian population]

The use of the Internet for health purposes increases in the Norwegian population, more in some demographic groups than in others. In this questionnaire-based study, we explore the use of the Internet for such purposes.

1007 Norwegians aged 15 years and older were interviewed by telephone in October 2005.

58% of the respondents in 2005 had used the Internet for health purposes, compared to 31% in 2001. Having visited the GP last year, being female, being young, living in a urban area, and having a white-collar occupation were positively related to the use of the Internet for health purposes. 37% of the respondents considered the Internet to be an important or very important source of health information. 72% considered face-to-face communication with health care personnel to be important or very important. Nearly a quarter of the users (23%) reported that they had felt reassured by health information found on the net, whereas 10 % experienced increased anxiety from the same type of information.

Norwegians' use of the Internet for health purposes continues to grow, but doctors and other health care personnel remain the most important sources of health information in the Norwegian population.