Increased demand for E-mail health consultation service: analysis of a Web survey.

The aim of the study was to explore characteristics of the users of the Interactive Service "Your Questions" that is based on E-mail health consultations. We wanted to find out what motivated users to use it, were they satisfied with it and what were its impacts on their health behavior. Therefore, we developed a Web survey and invited 2,747 users to take part in it. 919 (33.5%) of users responded. Results showed that the majority of respondents were women (79.1%) and that most hold at least a college degree (52.4%). The Service was mostly used for obtaining information about certain medical symptoms or medical conditions (50.1%), for a second opinion on a diagnosis (18.6%) and for more information about medical treatment (14.4%). In terms of Service features, it was used because of its convenience with regard to time (38.7%) and a sense of privacy (25.7%). Before posting a question to the Service, 93.2% of the respondents searched for health articles on the PLIVAzdravlje portal while 90% of them read the Questions and Answers database. Over half of them (61.8%) posted their question after they already visited their physicians on that particular issue. Nevertheless, 48% of them were encouraged to visit their physicians after they received the answer. The results show an important trend of increased demand for e-mail health consultation and the need for reliable medical information, with one thousand questions submitted to the Service in the observed period of 40 days. If the source of medical information is reliable, as in case of our Service as well as other forms of e-mail health consultations, it can have positive impact on valuable physician-patient communication based on knowledge and mutual understanding.