Transcript

[Miguel Gomez] Hello, this Miguel Gomez with AIDS.gov.

[Miguel Gomez] I’m speaking with a colleague from the Pew foundation.

[Miguel Gomez] Ma’am, could you please introduce yourself?

[Susannah Fox] My name is Susannah Fox and I work for the Pew Internet Project which studies the social impact of the Internet.

[Miguel Gomez] Great. What is your role there?

[Susannah Fox] I’m an Associate Director, which means I have my own research portfolio. I study Internet’s impact on health and healthcare.

[Miguel Gomez] Thank you. AIDS.gov works with our Federal and our National and local partners in response to HIV/AIDS. Could you share what advice you would have on the adoption of new media in response to HIV/AIDS?

[Susannah Fox] Absolutely. What we see in our data (we do mostly telephone surveys about how people use the internet) and what is really amazing to see is that 8 out of 10 Americans now have access to the Internet and of those 80% have looked at health information online. They are making decisions based on what they see online. More and more it is user-generated content. Its peer-to-peer advice that people are really accessing.

[Miguel Gomez] Well, thank you. As we all know, HIV impacts communities of color disproportionally. Could you tell us a little bit about internet use when it comes to health care in communities of color?

[Susannah Fox]What’s really amazing about our latest data we have a new survey based on an April, 2009 sample which looks at wireless access. When we take in these mobile devices into account, it turns out that the differences between White and African Americans is erased. 48% of African American adults have accessed the Internet on a mobile device compared to 28% of Whites. So there is this new opportunity that we have to reach people via text messaging, on cell phones. The most important thing is to make sure that your message is accessible on the small screen and able to be shared because of our other findings regarding peer-to-peer advice. It is becoming more and more influential in a lot of people’s lives.

[Miguel Gomez] Well, thank you and this is Miguel Gomez with AIDS.gov.