Charting Consumer Health: Online Orthopedic Resources

Abstract

How Americans use the Internet for health-related activities is rapidly changing with the pandemic pushing those changes even further. According to the November 2019 National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Internet Use Survey, four out of five Americans use the Internet with more than half of those households reporting using it for health-related activities. These activities include communicating with health professionals, accessing health records, and researching health information (1,2). Pre-pandemic, 43% of health centers could provide telemedicine, compared with 95% of the health centers that reported using telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic (3). It seems likely that as telehealth visits have increased, patients have become more comfortable using the Internet and participating in online health-related activities. Patients generally feel positive about using the Internet, finding it both time and cost-effective for locating health information. They describe health and social benefits such as improved self-care behavior and better social support (4,5). This also includes an increase in knowledge about orthopedic conditions that Dekkers, et al. found for patients who used the Internet as a source of education (4). Orthopedics is the specialty focused on the musculoskeletal system, treating injuries to bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons. Some common musculoskeletal conditions include bone and joint problems, osteoarthritis, arthritis, back pain, osteoporosis, and fractures. These conditions may be short term or lifelong. Global Burden of Disease (GBD) data showed that approximately 1.71 billion people globally have musculoskeletal conditions with low back pain and osteoarthritis being the most common conditions (6). Patients, parents and guardians often search the Internet prior to upcoming orthopedic consultations or surgery. In a 2019 study, Peterlein et al. found that while approximately half of their participants visited their hospital website to prepare for a visit, many were also visiting less trustworthy sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter (7).