RESULTS
The 743 students who completed the survey were predominantly
women, first-year or sophomore, and White
(Table 1). All students (98.7%) reported Internet use.
Eighty-five percent reported using the Internet 6 to 7 days a
week and said that they used it for an average of 2.49 hours
a day (SD = 2.55); 59.1% (435 students) reported being
very experienced with the Internet; 53.0% (393 students)
reported that they would like to get health information on
the Internet. Only 27.5% (204 students), however, reported
that they would like to attend a health program on the Internet.
Students also rated the importance of criteria in reviewing
Web sites for health information (see Table 2).
Overall, 542 students (72.9%) reported getting health
information from the Internet for themselves. Of those who
retrieved health information, 42 (7.7%) reported retrieving
information a lot, 267 (49.3%) reported retrieving information
some, and 233 (43.0%) reported retrieving information a
little. The most common method used to find health-related
Web sites was using a search engine (72.9%). The health Web
sites mentioned most frequently by the students were