Identifying social characteristics of health-related information seeker: a gender-specific approach for cancer survivors.

Minsoo Jung

doi:10.7314/apjcp.2015.16.5.1865

Abstract

While health information-seeking behavior as an indicator of health communication of patients including cancer survivors has been researched, few studies have focused on how socioeconomic position and media use combine to influence health-related information seekers. This study examined social characteristics of health information-seeking behavior taking into account an individual's socioeconomic position and their media use in Korea, a developed country. The data for this study came from a survey of 1,010 respondents drawn from a nationally representative sample in the Republic of Korea. We conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses for gender-specific effects. We found that men who reported high household income were one and half times more likely to seek health information than those with low income status. We also found that women who performed Internet searches by computer at home were almost two times more likely to seek health information than those who did not. Similar results were found for men as well. Our analyses revealed that socioeconomic position and media use are associated with health information-seeking behavior by gender. Studies on information seekers may bring us more effective health promotion and relevant intervention for people with chronic conditions including cancer survivors.

Highlights

Health information-seeking behavior (HISB) is active need-fulfillment behavior whereby health-related information is obtained from diverse sources, such as the mass media and Internet, and has emerged as an important issue within the transforming healthcare environment and the rise of medical consumers (Jung, Ramanadhan, and Viswanath, 2013; Jung, 2014a)
While health information-seeking behavior as an indicator of health communication of patients including cancer survivors has been researched, few studies have focused on how socioeconomic position and media use combine to influence health-related information seekers
Our analysis revealed that HISB among the population is strongly associated with social characteristics such as socioeconomic position, medical utilization, and media use, after controlling for potential confounders

Summary

Introduction

Health information-seeking behavior (HISB) is active need-fulfillment behavior whereby health-related information is obtained from diverse sources, such as the mass media and Internet, and has emerged as an important issue within the transforming healthcare environment and the rise of medical consumers (Jung, Ramanadhan, and Viswanath, 2013; Jung, 2014a). Health information became highly universalized amid a wave of health news, pharmaceutical advertisements, medical industries, and health websites coupled with the recent emergence of usergenerated Internet content based on diverse healthcare information and communication platforms (Viswanath, 2005). Attention to information-seeking behaviors has increased as medicine shifted away from physician-driven models toward models of shared-decision-making in physician patient interactions (Rankin et al, 2000; Davison et al, 2002). Because informed survivors actively interact with their medical providers, they may be able to accrue benefits in this shared system compared to survivors who are less informed (Charles et al, 2003; Kahn et al, 2007)

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