Consumer access to health information on the internet: health policy implications

Table 6 Net benefit of the information found

Results from the survey
	N = 92
	Mean	Standard deviation	95% confidence interval
Value score (# 1 to 5)	3.22	0.80	0.16
Benefit ($)	60 (a)	34.98	7.15
Search time (hours)	0.47	0.22	0.05
Annual income	47,000	24,432	4,992
Cost ($) (b)	12	8.48	1.73
Net benefit	48	33.98	6.94
Sensitivity analysis
			Net benefits change from base case
Each of the following increased by 10% holding all else constant
Benefit ($)			12%
Search time (hours)			-2%
Annual income			-2%

(a) Differs from tables 4 and 5 because the sample size vary between tables.
(b) Cost = annual income/47/40 × search time. Assumptions: 47 working weeks per year, 40 hours per working week, income group under $38,000 = $18,999.5, income group $38,000 to $60,000 = $49,000, and income group over $60,000 = $80,000.