Table 2.

Evaluation of Usefulness of Various Sources of Medical Information

Source of Medical Information	Patients Using Internet for Health Information, Mean Score*	Patients Not Using Internet for Health Informations, Mean Score*
Physician or nurse	6.09	6.19
Internet/World Wide Web	5.05	2.29†
Educational program or newsletter sponsored by hospital or HMO	4.50	4.54
Television news	4.22	4.98†
Medical journals	4.03	3.11†
Family	3.95	4.80†
Health or fitness magazine	3.84	3.67
Newspapers	3.83	4.29‡
Friends	3.79	4.38†
News magazine	3.67	3.49
Radio	3.42	3.87‡

^*Mean score based on scale from 1 (“not at all useful”) to 7 (“extremely useful”).

^†P < .001 for difference between groups by t test.

^‡P < .05 for difference between groups by t test.