Seventy percent of the U.S. adult population in 2007 was online and 80 percent of them say they have searched for health information. But data from two studies—the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2008 and HINTS, a 2005 NIH research project focused on use of the Internet for cancer information—paint a radically different story of Internet health information access among the haves and have-nots.

• Twenty-five percent of Americans whose household incomes are $20,000 a year or less had broadband at home in 2008—down from 28 percent in 2007.
• Forty-three percent of African Americans reported having home broadband, compared with 57 percent of whites and 56 percent of English-speaking Hispanics. (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/fall09digitaldivide/)

Contact: 

cjoujoute@outlook.com