Edelman Health team launched Health Engagement Barometer that talks about the changing dynamics of health communications and engagement. The survey was conducted last summer with a total of 5,000 people across China, US, UK, Russia and Germany.

There are some pretty powerful insights in the findings most relevant to engagement in Health 2.0:

• 70% of adults demand engagement especially for personal health issues that matter most to them

• Top three mandatories for health engagement: trust, authenticity and satisfaction 

• 22% of the population are Health Info-entials – people who are informed, involved with their health and actively engaged in the health conversation

• Most frequently accessed channels of health information:
- Conversations with friends/family (69%) 
- Conversations with “my doctor” or healthcare provider (65%).

• Social media is more credible when coupled with health expertise: 
- Top social medium: Health expert blogs (86%)
- Other most credible media include personal blogs, social networking sites, video-sharing sites, and Wikipedia.

And in Runet it’s more than true not only in health sphere because over 70% users trust experts and authority resources, 47% trust doctors and medicine specialists when 28% trust “people like you” (Edelman Trust Barometer).

The deck is available on the blog.