Health information is now part of everyday digital life in the United States. During July–December 2022, 58.5% of U.S. adults used the internet in the previous 12 months to look for health or medical information. In 2024, 65% of U.S. individuals reported that they were offered and accessed an online medical record or patient portal. Together, these figures show both the scale of digital health-information use and the importance of understanding who can access it, what people do with it, and where gaps remain.
Contents
- Online health-information seeking
- Differences by sex, age, and race
- Patient portals and medical records
- What people do with digital health information
- Hospital capabilities
- Caregivers and health literacy
Online health-information seeking
The CDC’s Health Information Technology Use Among Adults: United States, July–December 2022 reported that 58.5% of U.S. adults had used the internet during the previous 12 months to look for health or medical information. The measure covers a broad behavior: it does not identify a particular diagnosis, website, or type of information, and the period is specifically July–December 2022. (CDC, Health Information Technology Use Among Adults, July–December 2022)
The 2022 rate was higher than the comparable historical measure reported by the CDC for January–September 2009, when 45.6% of U.S. adults age 18 and older said they had looked up health information on the internet during the previous 12 months. These measurements come from different survey periods and should be read as a comparison of reported rates, not as a controlled estimate of change. (CDC, QuickStats, January–September 2009)
Women reported online health-information seeking more often than men in both periods. In July–December 2022, the rates were 63.3% for adult women and 53.5% for adult men. In January–September 2009, the corresponding rates were 51.0% and 39.8%. The 2022 difference was 9.8 percentage points, while the 2009 difference was 11.2 percentage points. The two CDC sources use the stated periods and measures for their respective estimates.
Differences by sex, age, and race
Age was strongly associated with reported online health-information seeking in the July–December 2022 CDC estimates. The rate was 67.2% among adults ages 30–44 and 62.7% among adults ages 18–29. Among adults age 75 and older, it was 36.3%. The rate for adults ages 30–44 was therefore 30.9 percentage points higher than the rate for adults age 75 and older. (CDC, Health Information Technology Use Among Adults, July–December 2022)
Reported rates also differed across the race and ethnicity categories presented in the source:
| U.S. adult group | Looked for health or medical information online, July–December 2022 |
|---|---|
| White, non-Hispanic | 63.4% |
| Asian, non-Hispanic | 60.1% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native, non-Hispanic | 56.1% |
| Black, non-Hispanic | 49.0% |
| Hispanic | 46.2% |
The reported rate for White non-Hispanic adults was 17.2 percentage points higher than the rate for Hispanic adults. These are population-level survey estimates for the specified period; they do not explain why the rates differ and should not be interpreted as measures of the quality, accuracy, or usefulness of the information people found.
The sex, age, and race or ethnicity figures describe whether respondents looked for health or medical information online during the previous 12 months. They do not measure whether someone found a clinician, understood a result, used a patient portal, or received appropriate care. Keeping those outcomes separate is important when interpreting health information statistics.
Patient portals and medical records
Access to formal digital records has expanded. The 2024 report Individuals’ Access and Use of Patient Portals and Smartphone Health Apps found that 65% of U.S. individuals reported being offered and accessing an online medical record or patient portal. The same measure was 25% in 2014. (Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Individuals’ Access and Use of Patient Portals and Smartphone Health Apps, 2024)
In 2024, 75% of individuals managing a recent cancer diagnosis reported that they were offered and accessed an online medical record or patient portal. This population-specific estimate is higher than the 65% figure for U.S. individuals overall, but the source does not establish the reasons for the difference.
Portal access is often distributed across several organizations rather than held in one place. In 2024, 68% of U.S. individuals reported an online medical record or patient portal with a primary care provider’s office, 40% with another health care provider, 30% with an insurer, 29% with a clinical laboratory, 24% with a pharmacy, and 22% with a hospital. Fifty-nine percent reported having multiple online medical records or patient portals. Only 7% used an app to combine medical information from different portals or online medical records.
The way people reach portals is also changing. Among individuals who accessed a patient portal at least once in the previous year, app access increased from 38% in 2020 to 57% in 2024. Web-only access decreased from 60% to 42% over the same period. These figures describe portal users and should not be treated as the percentage of all U.S. individuals using apps or websites.
Proxy and caregiver access expanded as well. The share of U.S. individuals with proxy or caregiver access to another person’s online medical record rose from 24% in 2020 to 51% in 2024. (Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, 2024)
What people do with digital health information
Among U.S. individuals who accessed health IT at least once in the previous year, viewing test results was the most commonly reported activity in 2024: 90% did so. The same group reported viewing clinical notes at a rate of 80%, messaging a health care provider or office at 79%, and using the internet to make a health care appointment at 77%. (Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Trends in Individuals Use of Health IT: 2012–2024)
Some activities were measured in earlier years. Among individuals who accessed health IT at least once in the previous year, 32% downloaded health information in 2022 and 20% transmitted medical information to a third party in 2022. In 2018, 19% added health information to share with a provider. In 2019, 10% used their portal to request correction of inaccurate information. Because these estimates refer to different years and activities, they should not be ranked as a single current-use scale.
Longer-term measures show substantial growth in several functions. The share of individuals viewing test results through health IT rose from 13% in 2012 to 90% in 2024. The share messaging providers through health IT rose from 23% in 2012 to 79% in 2024. The source reports these trends for 2012–2024; the figures do not mean that every person had access to the same portal features in every year.
Hospital capabilities for sharing information
Hospital infrastructure is widespread for basic electronic access. In 2024, 99% of U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals enabled patients to electronically view health information in at least one setting, and 96% enabled patients to download health information in at least one setting. Eighty-four percent enabled patients to electronically transmit health information to a third party. (Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Growth of Health IT-Enabled Patient Engagement Capabilities Among U.S. Hospitals: 2021–2024)
Specific capabilities varied in 2024. Ninety-five percent of non-federal acute care hospitals enabled patients to view clinical notes, and 92% enabled secure messaging with providers. App access configured to meet an electronic health record’s API specifications was available at 81% of hospitals, while access through FHIR-configured apps was available at 70%. Fifty-six percent enabled patients to import records from other organizations into a portal, and 62% enabled patients to submit patient-generated data through apps.
The combined availability of core features improved between 2021 and 2024. The share of U.S. hospitals with all four foundational capabilities—view, download, transmit, and message—increased from 72% in 2021 to 80% in 2024. The share with clinical-notes access and any type of app access increased from 65% in 2021 to 85% in 2024.
Location remained relevant. In 2024, app-access capability was available at 74% of rural U.S. hospitals, compared with 86% of urban hospitals. These hospital estimates concern capabilities enabled by organizations; they do not indicate that every patient used each capability successfully.
Caregivers and health literacy
Digital health information can affect more than the person whose name appears on a record. The Patient Engagement Playbook cites a national estimate that about 1 in 4 Americans served as a caregiver for a child, parent, spouse, or other loved one in 2024. Nearly 9 in 10 U.S. caregivers were offered access to their care recipient’s online medical record in 2024, and more than 1 in 2 accessed that record at least once. (Patient Engagement Playbook, Chapter 5)
Earlier hospital-reported figures provide additional context. In 2019, U.S. non-federal acute care hospitals reported offering designated caregivers access to 89%–90% of patients’ information across inpatient and outpatient settings. The 2019 hospital measure and the 2024 caregiver survey estimates use different populations and should not be combined into one trend line.
Access does not automatically mean comprehension. Federal health-literacy guidance states that as many as 50% of U.S. adults have limited literacy skills and that nearly 9 in 10 U.S. adults have limited health-literacy skills. These are national estimates cited by the guidance, not new measurements of portal use. (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Literacy and health literacy skills)
For wellness information, the practical distinction is central: a person may be able to search, open a portal, view a test result, or message a provider without having the same level of ability to interpret medical language or decide what to do next. The statistics show expanding digital access alongside continuing differences in use, infrastructure, caregiver access, and health-literacy skills.