Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Apr 23, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Apr 23, 2018 - Jun 18, 2018
Date Accepted: Jan 27, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Online Health Information Seeking and eHealth Literacy among Patients attending a Primary Care Clinic in Hong Kong: a Cross-sectional Survey
ABSTRACT
Background:
Previous studies suggest that patient's online health information seeking affects medical consultations and patient-doctor relationships. An up-to-date picture of patients’ online health information seeking behaviors can inform and prepare frontline healthcare professionals to collaborate, facilitate or empower patients to access and manage health information online.
Objective:
This study explores the prevalence, patterns, and predictors of online health information seeking behaviors among primary care patients in Hong Kong, and the relations between online health information seeking and eHealth literacy.
Methods:
Patients attending a university primary care clinic in Hong Kong were asked to complete a questionnaire survey on their demographic backgrounds; health status; frequency and pattern of online health information seeking; contents, sources, and reasons of online health information seeking, and their eHealth literacy. eHealth literacy was measured by the validated eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS). Regression analyses explored various demographic and behavioral predictors to online health information seeking, and predictors to eHealth literacy.
Results:
97.3% (1162/1194) respondents used the Internet, of which 87.4% (1016/1162) had used the Internet to find health information. Most respondents (66.0%, 665/1008) searched once monthly or more. Few (26.7%, 271/1016) asked their doctor about health information found online, but most doctors (56.1%, 152/271) showed little or no interest at all. The most sought topic was symptom (81.6%, 829/1016), the top reason was noticing new symptoms or change in health (70.1%, 712/1016), the most popular source is online encyclopedia (70.0%, 711/1016), and the top reason for choosing a source was convenience (55.4%, 563/1016). Poisson regression analysis identified high eHEALS score, fair or poor self-rated health, having chronic medical condition, and using the Internet several times a day as significant predictors to online health information seeking. Multiple regression analysis identified lower age, better self-rated health, more frequent Internet use, more frequent online health information seeking, and more types of health information sought as significant predictors to higher eHealth literacy.
Conclusions:
OHIS is prevalent among primary care patients in Hong Kong, but only a minority shared the information with doctors. Websites were chosen more for convenience than for accuracy or authoritativeness. Doctors should recognize, facilitate and empower patients for OHIS.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.