PHILADELPHIA—Some 71% of 1,461 private health information breaches over the past decade "compromised sensitive demographic or financial information that could be exploited for identity or financial fraud," according to a new research report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Those breaches affected nearly 159 million patients, the study found.
Meanwhile, 2% of all breaches (impacting 2.4 million people) compromised sensitive medical information, like mental health conditions or sexually transmitted infections, noted MarketWatch in its analysis.
All breaches included at least one piece of demographic information, and two in three breaches involved sensitive personal details such as Social Security numbers, MarketWatch said.