WebMD More Popular Than Social Media as Health Care Resource - iHealthBeat

People who seek health advice online trust health news websites such as WebMD more than user-generated content on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia, according to a survey conducted by Makovsky & Company and Kelton Research, Healthcare IT News reports.

For the nationally representative survey, researchers polled 1,111 consumers ages 18 and older in March.

Researchers found that 68% of respondents said they trust information on health news sites, while 54% said they trust information from Wikipedia, social networking sites and blogs.
In addition, 26% of respondents said Facebook sites created by other users are the least trusted health resource, and 6% said Facebook sites created by patient groups or communities are the least trusted.

Gil Bashe -- executive vice president and health practice leader at Makovsky -- said, "Peer-to-peer communication establishes an emotional, 'tell me your story' connection; yet, when it comes to health care information, patients still trust the experts."

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