Seekers and avoiders: Using health information orientation to explore audience segmentation

Abstract

Differentiation of health communication strategies can address a new type of health disparity, a communication inequity. This exploratory study collected survey data to identify online health information audience groups based on health information orientation and objective and perceived health literacy. Two groups were identified and compared showing that health information orientation could be used for systematic segmentation of the consumers of online health information. The two distinct information behaviors, health information engagement and health information apprehension, provided a stable foundation for audience segmentation. The paper discusses how the segmentation of audiences based on the reported information behaviors and information orientation can facilitate the development of targeted health communication and information engagement approaches.