Session 8 Readings - Health & Welfare

In the "Generation Rx.com" article by Kaiser, I was very surprised that 75% of the sampled "youth" were researching health information more often than they were downloading music or playing games. I guess younger people are just as concerned about their health and well-being as older people are. I can definitely understand why they would turn to the internet to find out things about their health that they may not feel comfortable talking about to family, friends or a personal doctor. It enables privacy and allows you to be discreet about your personal issues.

Then there is the issue concerning the validity of health information available. It's hard to decipher between what is reliable information, and what's not. If you search about a specific set of symptoms, you may get all different kinds of sources saying a thousand different things. Sometimes, I think we take for granted that what we see on-line is legitimate info, especially if the website looks appropiate or professional--but that's not always the case. We need to be careful not to believe everything we read.

I would think most people just use the internet to get a general idea about health. I believe its basically just to get some assurance that when you're experiencing certain problems, that its not too serious. Then, if any red flags are raised, we know it's time to seek out a professional who we can trust to really know the truth about the situation. Rather than having to run to the doctor for every little thing, we can do our own little research and sometimes we can rule out certain things. The Internet can be very helpful for that purpose, if used cautiously and correctly.

An article about the Group Health Centre starting a service to provide credible health information on-line through a number of approved websites: http://www.soonews.ca/viewarticle.php?id=12988