"Eighty percent of U.S. Internet users have searched for information online, but most do not check the date and reliability of the information they find, a study shows.

Searchers are more than twice as likely to start their search at a general-interest search engine as they are to begin at a medical site, according to the study, being released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The study, conducted in August, follows similar studies conducted in 2002 and 2004.

The findings suggest that a majority of Americans, taking advantage of the increasing availability of broadband Internet access at home and wanting to take more control of their own health care as costs rise quickly, are bringing information and questions to their doctors at a rate unheard-of less than a generation ago."


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