IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i23p16315-d994633.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Use of the Internet for Health Purposes—A National Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey among Adults in Poland

Author

Listed:
  • Krzysztof Płaciszewski

    (Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration in Warsaw, 02-507 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Waldemar Wierzba

    (Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration in Warsaw, 02-507 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Janusz Ostrowski

    (School of Public Health, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, 01-826 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Jarosław Pinkas

    (School of Public Health, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, 01-826 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Mateusz Jankowski

    (School of Public Health, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, 01-826 Warsaw, Poland)

Abstract

The Internet is one of the most popular information sources. This study aimed to assess the public attitudes towards the use of the Internet for health purposes as well as to identify factors associated with the use of the Internet for health purposes among adults in Poland. A web-based cross-sectional survey was carried out between 9 and 12 September 2022 on a nationwide random-quota sample of 1092 adults in Poland. The study questionnaire included 10 questions on Internet use for health purposes. The most common reason for the use of the Internet for health purposes was searching for information on drugs and their effects (69.9%). Almost two-thirds of participants used the Internet for searching for health information (64.9%), for doctors/medical services (63.4%), or for medical facilities (65.3%). Over half of the participants used the Internet for checking online reviews of doctors (55.2%) and 43.5% of the participants ordered drugs or dietary supplements online. Out of 9 different socioeconomic factors analyzed in this study, having higher education, being female, as well as living in cities from 100,000 to 499,999 residents were the most important factors ( p < 0.05) associated with the use of the Internet for health purposes. This study confirmed a high level of adoption of medical Internet in Poland.

Suggested Citation

  • Krzysztof Płaciszewski & Waldemar Wierzba & Janusz Ostrowski & Jarosław Pinkas & Mateusz Jankowski, 2022. "Use of the Internet for Health Purposes—A National Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey among Adults in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:16315-:d:994633
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16315/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16315/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mariusz Duplaga, 2022. "A Nationwide Natural Experiment of e-Health Implementation during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poland: User Satisfaction and the Ease-of-Use of Remote Physician’s Visits," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-13, July.
    2. Javier Alvarez-Galvez & Jose A. Salinas-Perez & Ilaria Montagni & Luis Salvador-Carulla, 2020. "The persistence of digital divides in the use of health information: a comparative study in 28 European countries," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 65(3), pages 325-333, April.
    3. Mateusz Jankowski & Aurelia Ostrowska & Radosław Sierpiński & Adam Skowron & Janusz Sytnik-Czetwertyński & Wojciech Giermaziak & Mariusz Gujski & Waldemar Wierzba & Jarosław Pinkas, 2022. "The Prevalence of Tobacco, Heated Tobacco, and E-Cigarette Use in Poland: A 2022 Web-Based Cross-Sectional Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-12, April.
    4. Ruben L Bach & Alexander Wenz, 2020. "Studying health-related internet and mobile device use using web logs and smartphone records," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-20, June.
    5. Chiranjeev Sanyal & Paul Stolee & Don Juzwishin & Don Husereau, 2018. "Economic evaluations of eHealth technologies: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-11, June.
    6. Michael Stellefson & Samantha R. Paige & Beth H. Chaney & J. Don Chaney, 2020. "Evolving Role of Social Media in Health Promotion: Updated Responsibilities for Health Education Specialists," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-7, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ana Gomes & José G. Dias, 2023. "Is there a Common Digital Market in the European Union? Implications for the European Digitalization Strategy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 797-814, May.
    2. Jingjing Gao & Gabriela A. Gallegos & Joe F. West, 2023. "Public Health Policy, Political Ideology, and Public Emotion Related to COVID-19 in the U.S," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(21), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Angélica Baptista Silva & Rondineli Mendes da Silva & Gizele da Rocha Ribeiro & Ana Cristina Carneiro Menezes Guedes & Daniela Lacerda Santos & Carla Cardi Nepomuceno & Rosângela Caetano, 2020. "Three decades of telemedicine in Brazil: Mapping the regulatory framework from 1990 to 2018," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Russell Miller & Nicholas Doria-Anderson & Akira Shibanuma & Jennifer Lisa Sakamoto & Aya Yumino & Masamine Jimba, 2021. "Evaluating Local Multilingual Health Care Information Environments on the Internet: A Pilot Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-12, June.
    5. Jacopo Ciaffi & Riccardo Meliconi & Maria Paola Landini & Luana Mancarella & Veronica Brusi & Cesare Faldini & Francesco Ursini, 2021. "Seasonality of Back Pain in Italy: An Infodemiology Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-10, February.
    6. Beniamino Schiavone & Andrea Vitale & Mena Gallo & Gianlucasalvatore Russo & Domenico Ponticelli & Mario Borrelli, 2021. "Overview of Facebook Use by Hospitals in Italy: A Nationwide Survey during the COVID-19 Emergency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-17, July.
    7. Xiwu Xu & Yaodong Zhou & Dai Su & Yuan Dang & Xianwen Zhang, 2023. "Does Education Influence Life-Course Depression in Middle-Aged and Elderly in China? Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-13, January.
    8. Joanna Albrecht & Anna Lea Stark & Eleana Dongas & Kamil J. Wrona & Christoph Dockweiler, 2022. "Hosting an Online World Café to Develop an Understanding of Digital Health Promoting Settings from a Citizen’s Perspective—Methodological Potentials and Challenges," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-19, August.
    9. Blanca Lozano-Chacon & Victor Suarez-Lledo & Javier Alvarez-Galvez, 2021. "Use and Effectiveness of Social-Media-Delivered Weight Loss Interventions among Teenagers and Young Adults: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-20, August.
    10. Sebastian Sołomacha & Paweł Sowa & Łukasz Kiszkiel & Piotr Paweł Laskowski & Maciej Alimowski & Łukasz Szczerbiński & Andrzej Szpak & Anna Moniuszko-Malinowska & Karol Kamiński, 2022. "Patient’s Perspective of Telemedicine in Poland—A Two-Year Pandemic Picture," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Nkiruka D Eze & Céu Mateus & Tiago Cravo Oliveira Hashiguchi, 2020. "Telemedicine in the OECD: An umbrella review of clinical and cost-effectiveness, patient experience and implementation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-24, August.
    12. Agata Balińska & Ewa Jaska & Agnieszka Werenowska, 2021. "The Role of Eco-Apps in Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behavior of Young People Studying in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    13. Nikita V. Polukhin & Tamara R. Nikolic Turnic & Natalia V. Ekkert & Vladimir A. Reshetnikov & Valery V. Royuk & Vera R. Shastina & Mikhail V. Vodolagin, 2023. "The Analysis of the Context of Digital Access to Healthcare in Russia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-16, January.
    14. Kevin K. C. Hung & Makiko K. MacDermot & Emily Y. Y. Chan & Sida Liu & Zhe Huang & Chi S. Wong & Joseph H. Walline & Colin A. Graham, 2021. "CCOUC Ethnic Minority Health Project: A Case Study for Health EDRM Initiatives to Improve Disaster Preparedness in a Rural Chinese Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-14, May.
    15. Chi-Horng Liao, 2020. "Evaluating the Social Marketing Success Criteria in Health Promotion: A F-DEMATEL Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-19, August.
    16. Ruben L. Bach & Christoph Kern & Denis Bonnay & Luc Kalaora, 2022. "Understanding political news media consumption with digital trace data and natural language processing," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 185(S2), pages 246-269, December.
    17. Michael Stellefson & Samantha R. Paige & Beth H. Chaney & J. Don Chaney, 2020. "Social Media and Health Promotion," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-5, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:23:p:16315-:d:994633. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.