Abstract
BACKGROUND: Diseases caused by tobacco products are the number one preventable health problem.STUDY OBJECTIVES: A pilot study was performed to determine the characteristics of persons searching the World Wide Web (WWW) for information on tobacco-caused diseases, the type of information sought and the feasibility of meeting informational needs.METHODS: The Lung Cancer and Cigarette Smoking Web Page at the unique reference location <http://www.smokinglungs.com>, created in January 1996, consists of hypertext metafile language files in a ‘frequently asked questions’ format on tobacco-caused diseases, nicotine dependence and smoking cessation. Links to other Web pages, a counter, e-mail access and Web forms were included.SETTING: Personal computer.PARTICIPANTS: People browsing the WWW.RESULTS: Between April 1996 and March 1999, there were more than 150,000 hits and 1510 individual e-mail or form responses; 597 (51.3%) of the respondents were female and 566 (48.7%) were male. They ranged between nine and 79 years of age, with a median of 29 years and a mean of 34 years. The percentage of respondents 20 years old or younger was 34.3%. Five hundred thirteen people resided in 45 American states, and 195 individuals resided in 39 other nations. Students, people with tobacco-caused diseases, and relatives or friends of persons with tobacco-caused diseases made up the large majority of correspondents. Smokers represented 40.2% of the respondents, ex-smokers 34.3% and never-smokers 25.5%. There were three main types of questions: questions for information on the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, for help with smoking cessation and for information on tobacco-caused diseases from students working on a school-related project. Images of tobacco-caused diseases were requested frequently.CONCLUSIONS: An educational WWW page is a potentially important resource in the control of tobacco-caused diseases because it fosters primary prevention of smoking in young people, facilitating smoking cessation and providing information on the diagnosis and treatment of tobacco-caused diseases.