Health information for the consumer: NHS vs the BBC

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate of the results of a survey which asked people where they went online for their health information, why and what success they had. The prime purpose of the questionnaire was to obtain information on the audience for health information web sites and to obtain feedback as to what they used online health sites for. The focus was on two major publicly funded health internet sites: NHS Direct Online and the BBC web site.

An online survey was carried out with a population of internet users in the UK in the winter of 2004, yielding a sample of nearly 1,000 (923) people and a response rate of 4.4 per cent was achieved.

The survey identified that indeed both sites were well used although their users were very different in terms of how they arrived at each site and in terms of what they were looking for. Outcomes resulting from using the sites are discussed and compared. Though outcomes differed between NHS Direct Online and the BBC the data suggest that the national sites were not meeting the demanding information needs of some users.

It is the first time that two publicly funded national sites that aim to provide the UK population with health information are compared.