Institute For The Future

Boomers seek health info online

From IgniteBLOG:

 

 

More than half of boomers access pharma sites for health info

 

Fifty-six percent of baby boomers and 35% of "matures" (people born before 1946) consult pharmaceutical Web sites when they are looking for health information. Yet sites about diseases or symptoms grab a bigger chunk of the audience: 70% of baby boomers and 41% of matures. That's according to a survey of 30,000 of these consumers by Focalyst, a joint venture between AARP Services and The Kantar Group. When it comes to what resource they think is most valuable, both boomers and matures cite their physician. Yet boomers are more likely to place high value on Web sites as information sources. According to the survey, 42% of boomers say that Web sites about diseases are among the most valuable sources, and 31% cite pharmaceutical Web sites. Both groups also are more inclined to visit pharma sites before government Web sites or publications or blogs/podcasts.

IgniteBLOG also reports on another pharma-related, new technologies story:

Study author points to pharma to take advantage of boomer texting

 

Text messaging is shaping up to be a good way for pharma to reach baby boomers, findings from online marketing research firm InsightExpress suggest. Eighty percent of younger baby boomers (aged 45–54) and 79% of older baby boomers (aged 55–64) use mobile phones. Although they are outpaced by younger generations, 16% of younger boomers and 10% of older boomers send or receive text messages every day. Joy Liuzzo, director of mobile research at InsightExpress, cited pharma as one industry that could really take advantage of the boomer texting trend. She told MediaPost that a pharma text message program could allow users to create an online account for reminders about when to take their medicine.