BackgroundThis study provides an overview of consumer health information (CHI) scholarly communication trends.ObjectivesTo explore CHI publications trends, journal citations, prolific authors, countries of origin, and distribution of CHI publications.MethodsA bibliometric analysis was used; 8953 records from the Web of Science (WoS) and peer‐reviewed journal articles from databases, including LISA, MEDLINE, ERIC, PREMEDLINE and EMBASE were analysed.ResultsPublications on CHI rapidly increased from 1980 to 2019, especially during the 1990s and 2000s. Most journals that have published CHI research are based in North America and Europe.ConclusionThe increase in the CHI literature corresponds with that in Internet usage in the 2000s, and explains the availability of CHI content online. This trend is associated with the widespread adoption of personal computers (PCs) and other Internet‐enabled gadgets.