Young people are more likely to look for health information on their smartphone than older users, according to an article in The New York Times. And this offers an opportunity for advertisers, says the article.

The report points to differences in how the generations research health matters. Three of the top five symptoms searched for on Yahoo! Mobile in January this year were early pregnancy, herpes and HIV while none of the same searches were among the most popular on PCs which are more likely to be used by older people, says the article. The most popular diseases researched by this demographic were gastroenteritis, heart attacks, gout and shingles, the article said.

The article quotes one ad agency called Heartbeat Ideas which advises its clients to push heavily into using mobile devices for advertising. However the article also mentions that many pharmaceutical companies struggle with how to squeeze all the safety information required by US regulations onto the small screens of mobile handsets.

Roughly one third of smartphone users tracked diet and exercise via their mobile devices, according to Comscore data from January, the article said. The figures were higher for iPad and other tablet users: 35 percent for diet and 39 percent for exercise information. According to the research firm, the US passed the 100-milllion smartphone mark in January.