But caregivers worry whether their charges are ready.

Three-quarters of US consumers ages 65 and over are generally comfortable with telemedicine, telepharmacies and other online tools that extend doctors' reach. But more than 80% of seniors' caregivers still think it will be a struggle to get their charges used to the technology.

Those are the main findings of the American Association of Retired Persons' "Healthy@Home" study, conducted in December 2007 by Knowledge Networks.

More than 90% of responding seniors said they would support the use of telepharmacies to let doctors monitor their medications and send prescriptions to the pharmacy. Nearly as many respondents said they would be willing to search for health information online.

The findings agree with a BurstMedia study conducted last August.
Among male respondents to this survey, there was a direct correlation between age and the percentage of people using the Internet for health information, with the 55 to 64 and 65-plus age groups scoring the highest. More than three-quarters of female respondents in all age groups said that they used the Internet for health information.

Users over the age of 60 also make up a large and growing segment of the US Internet audience. In 2006 there were 17.7 million Internet users age 62 or older. This group will swell to 25.3 million by 2011. eMarketer projects that this will represent 45.9% of all US citizens age 62 and older, up from 35% in 2006.

Learn more about how to reach older consumers through the Internet. Read eMarketer's Baby Boomers and Silver Surfers: Two Generations Online report.

Article Source: www.emarketer.com