Older adults are wary of AI health information and struggle with misinformation

While the vast majority of people over 50 search for health information online, a new poll shows that 74% would have very little or no trust in such information if it were generated by artificial intelligence.

Meanwhile, 20% of older adults have little or no confidence in their ability to spot misinformation about a health topic if they encounter it.

That rate was even higher among older adults who say their mental health, physical health or memory is fair or poor, and among those who report having a disability that limits their activities. In other words, those who most needed reliable health information were more likely to say they had little or no confidence in their ability to spot false information.

Of all older adults who recently searched for health information online, only 32% said it was very easy to find something accurate.

The new findings are coming true a report on health literacy among people aged 50 and overproduced by a team from the University of Michigan and AARP using data from the National Poll on Healthy Aging.

The authors note that health care systems, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies could use the results to help them produce and promote accurate and easy-to-understand health information in multiple formats. They also point to an opportunity for organizations to help older adults understand how to find reliable health information for themselves or others.

The poll is based on the UM Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovationand supported by AARP and Michigan Medicine, UM’s academic medical center.

“Amid this lack of trust, our findings also highlight the key role that healthcare providers and pharmacists play as trusted health messengers in the lives of older adults, and even the role that friends or family with a medical background can play,” said survey director Jeffrey. Kullgren, MD, MPH, MS, a family physician at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and associate professor of internal medicine at UM.

“We also find that health organization websites are considered highly trustworthy by most users, suggesting that more people should be encouraged to use them.”

Overall, 84% of older adults said they had received health information directly from a healthcare provider, pharmacist, friend or family member in the past year. More than 70% of them rated health professionals as very trustworthy, but 62% said the same about friends and family with a medical background.

The poll also asked older adults to what extent they used and trusted specific types of online health information sites, from .com sites that focus on such topics to university, hospital, government and health-related nonprofit sites.

Overall, 58% of all older adults surveyed said they had used at least one such site for information in the past year. The type of site used by the highest percentage of people was 39% for .com health information sites such as WebMD and Healthline, followed by 31% who said they had visited a health system’s website.

Of those who had used a .com site, 36% said they found the information very reliable, compared to 59% of those who had visited a health system’s website. Much smaller percentages had visited sites operated by federal government agencies (21%), nonprofit organizations such as the American Heart Association or American Cancer Society (14%), and universities or medical schools (11%). But of those who had visited such sites, about 60% said they found them very trustworthy.

“Older adults are increasingly turning to the Internet for health information, but there is a significant trust gap, especially when it comes to AI-generated content,” said Indira Venkat, AARP Senior Vice President of Research.

“While advances in AI offer promising opportunities to support healthy aging, this poll underscores the urgent need for reliable, accessible healthcare services. Ensuring that older adults receive reliable information from healthcare providers and credible websites is critical as we navigate the evolving digital health landscape. .”

AARP offers free resources on the possibilities and dangers of AI www.aarp.org/AI. In addition, Senior planet by AARP, a flagship program of AARP’s Older Adult Technology Services charity, offers free online classes on how AI is used in everyday life, how to recognize it, its current progress and limitations, and how it will shape the future.

Other findings on health literacy

The poll also asked about more traditional forms of health literacy and trust in health information. Among the findings:

• 18% of older adults surveyed said they had not used the Internet at all to look up health information in the past year; this percentage was highest among those over age 65 (24%), those who are black and non-Hispanic (25%), and those with a high school education or less (26%).
• 14% fully or partially disagreed that it is easy to understand written information from their healthcare provider, while 8% said the same about the information they receive verbally from their healthcare provider
• 26% were not confident they knew or could find information about what an upcoming medical procedure would cost them out of pocket; 20% said the same about potential prescription costs and 18% said the same about upcoming office visits
• When it comes to prescription medicines, 90% partly or fully agreed that their medicine bottle labels are easy to understand, and 91% agreed that the information provided with their prescription medicines is easy to understand
• When asked to fill out medical forms, 82% were extremely or quite confident that they could do it themselves, but 5% were somewhat or not at all confident.

The poll report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for IHPI and administered online and by telephone in February and March 2024 among 3,379 adults ages 50 to 101. The sample was then weighted to reflect the US figures. population. Read previous reports from the National Poll on healthy aging And about the poll methodology.