US consumers seeking health information are more likely to look for it online rather than via a mobile, according to a survey by Makovsky Health and Kelton. While the wider economic trend is showing a move from web to mobile, data shows the PC-based search is more popular. Tom Bernthal, CEO of Kelton, describes desktop search as “vastly preferred, meaning the newest channels might not be for healthcare marketers”, although the survey does not explain the reasons behind this counter-cyclical finding.

The survey interviewed 1,001 US consumers aged 18 and above in July 2012, in a bid to discover consumer preferences for finding online health information. The research went wider than the fixed-mobile divide although this provided some of the more interesting answers. The survey found respondents are most likely to use a PC (90 percent) ahead of a smartphone (seven percent) or tablet (four percent) to search for health information online.

Furthermore, says the survey, a PC-based customer is more likely than smartphone/tablet-reliant one to visit a pharma website after receiving a diagnosis from their doctor (52 percent against 31 percent), whereas smartphone/tablet users are far more likely than PC users (43 percent to 24 percent) to visit a pharma site after experiencing a few symptoms.