Overview

Health information remains one of the most important subjects that internet users research online. Symptoms and treatments continue to dominate internet users' health searches, but food safety, drug safety, and pregnancy information are among eight new topics included in the current survey. In all, 80% of internet users gather health information online. Read more...

About the Survey

This report is based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans' use of the internet. The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between August 9 and September 13, 2010, among a sample of 3,001 adults, age 18 and older.  Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.  A combination of landline and cellular random digit dial (RDD) samples was used to represent all adults in the continental United States who have access to either a landline or cellular telephone.  For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.  For results based on internet users (n=2,065), the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.  In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting telephone surveys may introduce some error or bias into the findings of opinion polls. More information is available in the Methodology section of this report.