Consumers of Internet Health Information

Many websites on the Internet offer information for §consumers. With regard to healthcare, individuals §are increasingly utilizing the abundance of this §health and medical information available. This §information can potentially impact the psychological §health of these individuals who are concerned about §their illness. This book is about the experience of §women with breast cancer who searched the Internet §for information. Data were collected and analyzed §to help understand how this Internet information §impacted these women with breast cancer. Greater §social support was the main impact of using this §Internet information. Also, this experience of §greater social support was not only beneficial for §whites but also even more beneficial for §minorities. These psychological benefits occurred §with only a minimal weekly time commitment of §searching for and using this Internet information. §The analyses reported and discussed in this book are §useful to those from a number of fields including §Psychology, Marketing, Communication, Counseling, §Oncology, Public Health, Consumer Behavior, §Advertising, E-health, and E-commerce.