| It is anticipated that sophisticated health care consumers will increasingly use the Internet as a health resource. This study explores the current use chiropractic patients make of the Internet as a health information resource and investigates the type of chiropractic information patients would like to see made available on the Web. Research Method: A case study was undertaken. Maximum variations sampling of 30 chiropractic clinics was used to ensure a broad range of participants. Convenience sampling of chiropractic patients was performed. Data was collected by questionnaire from a total of 804 patients, of whom 696 participated in phase 1 and 364 in phase 2 of the study. Results: Eighty-eight (88%) of participants in phase 1 had access to the Internet. Phase 2 found that chiropractic patients seldom use the Internet as a health promotion and disease prevention resource, but 1 in 5 participants did use the Internet to get information about a current health problem, and up to 1 in 2 expressed interest in having information specific to chiropractic available on the Web. The telephone remains the preferred clinic communication medium. Conclusion: While individual chiropractors may be prudent to canvass their patients before implementing web-based practice procedures, it is perhaps timely for the chiropractic profession to explore how use of the Internet may promote this profession. This abstract is reproduced with the permission of the publisher; full text (print only) by subscription.
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