College-educated youngsters likelier to use unreliable online health forums

A new study has revealed that younger college-educated consumers are likelier to take advice from unreliable online health forums.

Researcher Kapil Chalil Madathil from Clemson University said that age, educational levels, and health status were significant predictors of a consumer's use of anecdotal information available on the Internet.

The scientists found that among more than 3,000 participants, younger consumers who attended four or more years of college were far more likely to reference online anecdotal information than were older individuals with a high school education or less and respondents, who reported poorer levels of health, took to the Internet significantly more often than who were healthier.

The authors urge consumers to seek advice from a licensed medical professional and to use caution when searching for health information online.

Madathil added that consumers might be relying less on health-care providers, which created the risk of receiving misleading, inaccurate, and untrustworthy information from immoderate Internet sources.