Health information disparities? determining the relationship between age, poverty, and rate of calls to a consumer and patient health information service

A recent Pew report on the demographics of Internet users shows that while 71% of all adult Americans go online, only 32% of those over 65 and just 55% of those living in households with less than $30,000 in annual income have Internet access [8]. Because a library-based telephone reference service is a low technology way to obtain health information and libraries are a trusted source of health information, populations who are not using the Internet are an important target for the Preston Medical Library's consumer health service. Because quality health information has been shown to contribute to all aspects of disease prevention and to better health care outcomes [20-22], outreach and promotion of the Preston Medical Library's Consumer and Patient Health Information Service will be altered to increase awareness of the service to assist in decreasing the identified health information disparity.