| Abstract: | Abstract Over the past decade, the Internet has become a vital part of our society, playing a significant role in bridging the traditionally extensive gap between knowledge seekers and knowledge providers and creating an opportunity for consumers in rural communities to access health information previously either unavailable or available through very limited sources. This exploratory study was conducted to examine utilization of the Internet for health information retrieval by rural West Virginia consumers. Surprisingly, the researchers discovered that more West Virginia rural respondents had access to the Internet than the national average for rural consumers and that health care professionals in rural West Virginia rarely suggest the Internet to their patients as a secondary source of health information. |
