The number of households across the country that use the internet to access health records or for telehealth visits increased by 4 percent from 2017 to 2019, according to a recent National Telecommunications and Information Administration analysis.
The proportion of households that accessed medical or health insurance records online grew from 30 percent in 2017 to 34 percent in 2019, according to the Dec. 7 report. Fifty-one percent of households said they used the internet for any health-related activity, including looking up medical records, researching health information and communicating with a provider.
Internet-using households owned or rented by a person at least 65 years old tended to use the internet less to access health records and research health information compared to households headed by people between the ages of 25 and 64. However, compared to other age groups, those 65 years and older had the highest adoption rate of electronic health monitoring services, which gather and send data to providers using connected Internet of Things-connected devices.