Background: A significant majority of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) search the Internet for information about their disease. While patients who search the Internet for disease or treatment information are believed to be more resistant to accepting medical therapy, no studies have tested this hypothesis.
Methods: All IBD patients over a 3-month period across three gastroenterology practices were surveyed about their disease, treatments, websites visited, attitudes toward medications, and their willingness to accept prescribed therapies after disease-related Internet searches.
Results: Of 142 total patients, 91 % of respondents searched the Internet for IBD information. The vast majority (82 %) reported taking medication upon their doctor's recommendation and cited the desire to acquire additional information about their disease and prescribed therapies as their most important search motivator (77 %). Internet usage did not affect the willingness of 52 % of our cohort to accept prescribed medication.
Conclusion: The majority of IBD patients who searched the Internet for disease and treatment-related information were not affected in their willingness to accept prescribed medical therapy.
Keywords: Crohn’s disease; Inflammatory bowel disease; Internet; Ulcerative colitis.