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BURST! Media Study Finds Two-thirds of Internet Users Have Sought Health Information Online

Burlington, MA (March 17, 2005) Just over two-thirds (67.9%) of Internet users say they have used the Internet to gather health information according to a recent BURST! survey of more than 6,800 web users on their use of the web to research health information including prescription drugs and over-the-counter (OTC) remedies.
Women are significantly more likely than men to say they have used the Internet as a health information resource - 73.9% versus 62.1% with usage peaking among women 25-44 (80.5%) and 45-64 (82.1%). Interestingly, even among the youngest age segment - 18 years and younger, one-half (51.5%) of females and one-third (38.2%) of males say they have used the Internet to gather health information.

"In order to provide actionable guidance to health-related advertisers such as OTC medications, it was imperative to understand how the Internet has impacted consumers search for health information," says Chuck Moran, BURST! Media's Market Research Manager. "Among BURST's nearly 2,000 websites, a fair number of them provide health information."

Among other significant findings of the BURST Media study:

Condition-Specific Sites/Chat/Forums
Most Popular Web Destinations

Nearly half (47.0%) of respondents who use the Internet as a health resource say they have visited a condition specific websites/chat/forum to gather health information. Other online sources of health information include; commercial healthcare websites (36.0%), healthcare providers' websites (26.1%), government websites (26.0%) and pharmaceutical company's websites (21.1%).

Women are more likely than men to say they have visited a condition specific website/chat/forum (48.6% versus 45.1%) or a commercial healthcare website (38.7% versus 32.8%). Among age segments, the use of pharmaceutical companies' websites increases with age - rising from 16.4% among respondents 24 years and younger, to 32.1% among those 65 years and older.

Interestingly, the use of commercial healthcare websites increases with income - peaking at 47.0% of respondents reporting household income of $75,000 or more. Also, government websites are utilized much more; by college graduates (28.8%) than high school graduates (19.8%); and by respondents with household income $75,000 or more (32.7%) than households earning less than $35,000 (21.8%).

Symptoms of and Treatments for Illnesses
Most Sought Information

One-half (50.4%) of respondents say they have used the Internet to gather information about specific illnesses' symptoms; and 43.9% say they have used it to find information about treatments for a specific illness. Respondents also sought information on specific drugs or remedies (30.9%), nutrition (28.6%), vitamins and supplements (26.2%), diet or weight loss programs (25.1%), non-prescription/OTC remedies (22.5%) and heath and beauty aids (20.7%).

On all healthcare information types tested, a significantly greater proportion of women respondents than male respondents said they had sought that information on the Internet. This is particularly true symptoms of specific illnesses (54.8% of women versus 45.3% of men), treatment of specific illnesses (48.2% of women versus 38.9% of men), diet or weight loss programs (31.2% of women versus 18.1% of men) as well as health and beauty aids (28.0% of women versus 12.3% of men).

One-In-Five Respondents Say They Have
Clicked On a Drug Ad Online

One-in-five (19.7%) respondents say they have clicked on a prescription drug or OTC remedy advertisement they saw on the Internet. Men and women responded similarly - with 19.5% of women and 19.9% of men saying they have clicked on an online drug advertisement. Interestingly, the oldest age segment - respondents 65 years and older - is the group with the highest proportion of respondents saying they have clicked on an online drug advertisement. Among the senior segment 29.2% say they have clicked on an online drug advertisement. Senior men are more likely than senior women to say they have clicked - 32.3% versus 25.2%.

BURST! Media (www.burstmedia.com) is an Internet ad services and online ad sales rep company that delivers more than 4 billion advertising impressions for over 2,000 websites every month, BURST! reaches approximately 1 in 3 people online and is among the 15 largest online media properties in terms of unique visitors and reach.* By providing thousands of web publishers with tools and expertise from ad sales to email newsletter tools and community forums for learning, BURST! helps publishers generate sustainable revenue. BURST! also markets AdDesktop, a competitively-priced, ASP ad management solution that helps web publishers securely target, serve, track and report the performance of online advertising campaigns. The company, founded in 1995, is based near Boston, and was recently named the 11th fastest growing private company by the Boston Business Journal.

*(according to comScore Media Metrix)

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