Abstract

Background: Internet browsing is not only a source of entertainment but also a major source of information including that related to health content. Hence, this study was conducted to know the role of internet in healthcare.

Aim and Objective: This study aims to know the usage and role of internet in health care in rural and urban area.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1000 respondents (500 urban and 500 rural) were studied in five rural and five urban areas of district Amritsar. They were interviewed with the help of pre-tested and pre-structured questionnaire. Period of study was from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2015.

Results: About 25.70% of respondents were using internet with 13.80% of respondents in rural and 37.60% in urban. Of those respondents, 69.57% of rural and 39.36% of urban respondents were using internet for entertainment purposes only whereas 30.43% of rural and 60.64% of urban respondents were using it for all purposes including that related to health. About 28.99% of rural population and 44.68% of urban population were using internet for reading health-related content making it a total of 40.47% of total respondents. About 95.00% of rural and 82.14% of urban respondents using internet for health have searched regarding medicine and disease and majority. About 65.37% of respondents said that there should be some restrictions on internet on content basis.

Conclusion: Internet has a wide range of data but still in rural and urban areas, very few were using the internet and those who were using in rural areas were not using it for health purposes.

Key words: Internet; Health care; Rural; Urban