Long gone are those days, when people used to go the neighborhood doctor for just about everything, even for information on various health related concerns and issues. Nowadays, the Internet, a virtual world unto itself is fast becoming the one stop information library for just about every health issue. In the latest findings released by Harris Interactive, it has been observed that, more and more American Internet users are now referring to the Internet for health related information, so much so that, this number has jumped from 154 million in 2009 to 175 million for the year 2010.

Harris Interactive initiated the polls in the year 1998 and since then, the number of user has been increasing at quite a considerable pace. According to the polls, 32% of the participants stated that, they routinely visit the web for health related information. This increasing trend which has been given the term of ‘cyberchondriacs’ has now grown more than three times, with the initial poll putting such users at 50 million in the year 1998. One of the primary reasons that could have sparked this trend at such exponential levels, is the ease with which such information can be obtained on the web, ranging from a common cold to cancer, AIDS and other highly complicated and fatal conditions.

As per the poll, the majority of the respondents stated that, they were more than satisfied with the information they sought and found it quite easily on the web. Only 9% of the respondents confessed that, they had been unsuccessful in finding what they were looking for and a measly 8% agreed that, they did not find the information reliable

Via Switched