Objective: To analyse whether websites in Spanish are an adequate medium to be self-informed considering the surfing styles of Internet users.
Methods: In a real context 225 subjects searched for information on the Net to answer a series of questions on two diseases and one therapeutic technique. Also, they informed their habits when using Internet.
Results: Slightly more than the half of the questions were correctly answered. To find information, they visited more than 70 different pages in all cases. A major number of websites visited was not related with a better knowledge of treatment or illness (p>0.05).
Conclusions: When health professionals recommend a website to a patient (web prescription) they must consider both, the quality of the information, and the style for surfing on the Net.