BMC Public Health Research article Use of diagnostic self-tests on body materials among Internet users in the Netherlands: prevalence and correlates of use Gaby Ronda*, Piet Portegijs, Geert-Jan Dinant, Frank Buntinx, Roelf Norg and Trudy van der Weijden BioMed Central Open Access Address: Department of General Practice, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, School for Public Health and Primary Care (Caphri), Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands Email: Gaby Ronda* - gaby.ronda@hag.unimaas.nl; Piet Portegijs - piet.portegijs@hag.unimaas.nl; Geert- Jan Dinant - geertjan.dinant@hag.unimaas.nl; Frank Buntinx - frank.buntinx@hag.unimaas.nl; Roelf Norg - roelf.norg@hag.unimaas.nl; Trudy van der Weijden - trudy.vanderweijden@hag.unimaas.nl * Corresponding author Published: 9 April 2009 BMC Public Health 2009, 9:100 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-9-100 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/100 Received: 30 September 2008 Accepted: 9 April 2009 © 2009 Ronda et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: A range of self-tests on body materials has become available to the general public, but the extent of their use has hardly been studied. This study examined how many people use diagnostic self-tests on body materials such as blood or urine, as well as the type of tests that are used, and factors associated with their use. Methods: Cross-sectional survey. Participants were recruited from an existing Dutch Internet panel of 12,529 persons, and information was collected by means of a structured Internet-based questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to assess correlates of self-test use. Results: Response to the survey was 63%. Sixteen percent of the respondents said they had ever used at least one self-test, with a mean of 2.1 tests per self-tester. The most frequently reported self-tests were those for diabetes and cholesterol. Self-testers generally reported lower health status and had a higher BMI than non-testers. On the other hand, they were more likely to engage in health-related behaviour such as the use of dietary supplements and homeopathic medicine. Conclusion: Self-testing proved to be relatively prevalent among Dutch Internet users. We therefore think that it is essential to develop appropriate information for consumers, health care providers and policymakers, about the pros and cons of self-testing and specific self-tests. More test-specific research is needed. Background A range of self-tests on body materials has become availa- ble to the general public in the Netherlands in recent years. In an Internet search we found self-tests for over 25 conditions, including cancers, infectious diseases and car- diovascular diseases [1]. These self-tests can be bought over the counter or via the Internet, and require a sample of body material, such as blood, urine, faeces or saliva. We identified four types of self-test: (1) those where the results of the sample are immediately available at home, (2) those where the sample has to be sent to a laboratory with results returned by post or Internet or (3) those where the consumer may have to go to a laboratory to have a sample taken, with results returned by post or Page 1 of 6 (page number not for citation purposes)