Objective: To determine the extent to which German health-care consumers seek health related information on line and their perceived importance of the internet, as compared to other sources of health information.
Research design: Computer-assisted telephone interviews through which surveys were conducted concomitantly in seven European countries, including Germany. The instrument of the survey was a questionnaire designed in English and subsequently translated in German using a dual focus approach.
Subjects: A household sample generated by random digit dialling, including 934 individuals (age 15-80.
Outcome: Internet was used by 675 (72.1%) respondents, 73.5% of whom (53.2% of the total sample) looked for health related information. The importance of internet was rated rather low in comparison with other sources of health related information, while direct contact with healthcare professionals was deemed the most important source of health information by all socio-demographic groups considered, regardless of whether they used the internet or not.