Characterizing internet health information seeking strategies by socioeconomic status: a mixed methods approach

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Abstract

Background

The Internet is valuable for those with limited access to health care services because of its low cost and wealth of information. Our objectives were to investigate how the Internet is used to obtain health-related information and how individuals with differing socioeconomic resources navigate it when presented with a health decision.

Methods

Study participants were recruited from public settings and social service agencies. Participants listened to one of two clinical scenarios – consistent with influenza or bacterial meningitis – and then conducted an Internet search. Screen-capture video software captured the Internet search. Participant Internet search strategies were analyzed and coded for pre- and post-Internet search guess at diagnosis and information seeking patterns. Individuals who did not have a college degree and were recruited from locations offering social services were categorized as “lower socioeconomic status” (SES); the remainder was categorized as “higher SES.” Participants were 78 Internet health information seekers, ranging from 21–35 years of age, who experienced barriers to accessing health care services.

Results

Lower-SES individuals were more likely to use an intuitive, rather than deliberative, approach to Internet health information seeking. Lower- and higher-SES participants did not differ in the tendency to make diagnostic guesses based on Internet searches. Lower-SES participants were more likely than their higher-SES counterparts to narrow the scope of their search.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that individuals with different levels of socioeconomic status vary in the heuristics and search patterns they rely upon to direct their searches. The influence and use of credible information in the process of making a decision is associated with education and prior experiences with healthcare services. Those with limited resources may be disadvantaged when turning to the Internet to make a health decision.

Related collections

Most cited references 14

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Amber M Reinhart, Thomas Hugh Feeley, A Anker (2011)

Outlines the methods and measures commonly used to study active health information seeking and prescribes important considerations in advancing the study of patient information seeking. A systematic review of the literature from 1978 to 2010. A single bibliometric database, PsychInfo, identified 648 articles of health information seeking. The 129 articles included in the review were coded by type of sample, measures (n=12) utilized to study health information seeking, and types of study methods (n=5). A majority of studies used non-clinical samples and measured general health information seeking (i.e., whether the participant engaged in a search for health information) through cross-sectional study designs. There are varying samples, measures, and designs used to identify those who do or do not seek health information. Future research should look into how health information seeking influences health management and should uncover the social and relational functions of health information seeking using more advanced (and less routinely applied) measures and methods of studying health information seeking. More people are actively searching for health information and health providers should address this in their discussions with patients. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Who searches the internet for health information?

M Bundorf, Todd H Wagner, Jan Wagner … (2006)

To determine what types of consumers use the Internet as a source of health information. A survey of consumer use of the Internet for health information conducted during December 2001 and January 2002. We estimated multivariate regression models to test hypotheses regarding the characteristics of consumers that affect information seeking behavior. Respondents were randomly sampled from an Internet-enabled panel of over 60,000 households. Our survey was sent to 12,878 panel members, and 69.4 percent of surveyed panel members responded. We collected information about respondents' use of the Internet to search for health information and to communicate about health care with others using the Internet or e-mail within the last year. Individuals with reported chronic conditions were more likely than those without to search for health information on the Internet. The uninsured, particularly those with a reported chronic condition, were more likely than the privately insured to search. Individuals with longer travel times for their usual source of care were more likely to use the Internet for health-related communication than those with shorter travel times. Populations with serious health needs and those facing significant barriers in accessing health care in traditional settings turn to the Internet for health information.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Susan L. Perez: (916) 278-6451 , susan.perez@csus.edu

Richard L. Kravitz: rlkravitz@ucdavis.edu

Robert A. Bell: rabell@ucdavis.edu

Man Shan Chan: mschan@ucdavis.edu

Debora A. Paterniti: dapaterniti@ucdavis.edu

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Med Inform Decis Mak

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Med Inform Decis Mak

Title: BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1472-6947

Publication date (Electronic): 9 August 2016

Publication date PMC-release: 9 August 2016

Publication date Collection: 2016

Volume: 16

Electronic Location Identifier: 107

Affiliations

[1 ]School of Nursing Science and Health Care Leadership, University of California, Davis, USA

[2 ]Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis, USA

[3 ]Department of Communication, University of California, Davis, USA

[4 ]Department of Sociology, University of California, Davis, USA

[5 ]Department of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis, USA

[6 ]Department of Kinesiology and Health Science, California State University, Sacramento, 6000 J Street; Solano Hall 2003, Sacramento, CA 95819-6073 USA

[7 ]Department of Sociology, California State University, Sonoma, USA

Article

Publisher ID: 344

DOI: 10.1186/s12911-016-0344-x

PMC ID: 4979125

PubMed ID: 27506607

SO-VID: c53ce078-9f45-4f8b-a5da-1666a7a8acbb

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 14 October 2015

Date accepted : 3 August 2016

Funding

Funded by: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) through the Quality, Safety, and Comparative Effectiveness Research Training (QSCERT) Program

Award ID: T32HS022236

Award Recipient : Susan L. Perez

Funded by: National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (US), National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Award ID: UL1 TR000002