Nearly half of all US bloggers have written about a health-related topic at least once, and three in five of those write primarily on the subject, according to new research by Envision Solutions, a healthcare marketing communications consultant. According to my math, that’s almost one in three bloggers that claim health topics as a niche for their blog.
A few interesting statistics to come out of the report:
- Numbers: Over 13 million Americans wrote at least one health-related post in the seven months between February and August 2008.
- Diversity: Nearly three in five health bloggers are female, and nearly two in five are either African-American or Hispanic.
- Age: Half of all health bloggers are aged between 18 and 34.
- Motivation: A third of those surveyed said that they blogged to educate others, while one in five did so primarily to market themselves or their services. 10% were trying to advance a cause, and 7% were using the blog as some kind of self-help for their medical condition.
There seemed to be an increase in the commercialization of blogs, with 46% of healthcare marketing professionals claiming to have been contacted by the PR company for a product or service, up from 29% in 2006, while over a third said they had placed ads on their site, up from just over a quarter two years ago. [Read more…]