Online Consumer Search Strategies for Smoking-Cessation Information

Abstract

For many Americans, the Internet has become a primary mechanism for locating information on healthcare and treatment options, including tobacco addiction. Detailed information on this behavior could inform design decisions for next-generation cessation interventions, but very little is known about how consumers search or what resources they locate. A subset of a publicly available, anonymized record of the search behavior of 650,000 individuals over 3 months in 2006 was analyzed. Smoking cessation-related queries were extracted and coded via manual identification of terms and by back-identifying terms by matching them to the websites ultimately visited. Destination sites were coded as to whether or not they originated from a professional source based on the literature and known healthcare organizations. A total of 628 individuals (0.10%) made 1106 cessation-related searches during the observation period. Of these, 76% resulted in the individual reaching a website; professional sites were reached by only 34% of searchers. Complementary or alternative therapies were popular, with 10% of individuals searching for "laser" therapy. A concerning disconnect exists between consumer demand (as demonstrated by search behavior) and the sites produced by researchers and health professionals. This "demand gap" may contribute to low overall participation rates and hamper the potential impact of such systems. Further research is needed to link online consumer preferences to intervention design decisions.