NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
NATIONAL CENTER FOR COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
NIH Offers Web Site Especially for Seniors
Seniors are a fast-growing group of Internet users
© Matthew Lester
Older adults are frequent users of CAM. For example, 41 percent of adults in the United States who are aged 60 to 69 use CAM, according to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey. Seniors are also one of the fastest-growing age groups among Internet users. NIH offers a Web site of health information, NIHSeniorHealth, that is specially tailored to the interests and needs of older adults.
NCCAM developed a module on CAM that launched in December 2008. The layout is simple and clear, and the text short and easy to read. Users can click on options to make text bigger, change its color, or have it read aloud. Topics include definitions, CAM therapies (including short videos on several therapies), CAM for conditions affecting older adults, how to be an informed consumer, and how to talk candidly to health care providers about CAM use.
Users are responding to the new CAM section, as it was the second-most-viewed topic on NIHSeniorHealth during the first quarter of 2009. NIHSeniorHealth is a joint venture of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging at NIH.
To view the NIHSeniorHealth Web site, go to nihseniorhealth.gov.
To view the module on CAM, go to nihseniorhealth.gov/cam/toc.html.
