Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Dec 12, 2018
Open Peer Review Period: Dec 17, 2018 - Feb 11, 2019
Date Accepted: Dec 16, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
The Association Between Health Information Seeking on the Internet and Doctor Visits: Findings from the 7th Population-Based Tromsø Study, Part 4
ABSTRACT
Background:
The Internet is being widely used for seeking health information. However, there is no consensus on what impact this behavior has on the use of health care services. Therefore, a better understanding of the impact of health information seeking on the use of health care services is needed.
Objective:
The study aims to examine the effect of health information seeking via the Internet on doctor visits.
Methods:
A cross-sectional health survey data were collected in the Tromsø 7 study. The study participants are individuals aged 40 years and above and live in Tromsø, Norway. Controlling for demographic, socioeconomic status, and health status, logistic regression models were developed to examine the effect of online health information seeking on doctor visits, decisions to visit a doctor, and decisions not to visit a doctor.
Results:
The survey had 65% response rate, and 18,197 participants were included in the study. Use of web search engines (OR = 1.63, 95%CI = 1.49, 1.78) and health apps (OR = 1.17, 95%CI = 1.02, 1.33) positively predicted a doctor visit. Older age, part time work, disability and other family welfare benefit, higher household income, and having a disease positively predicted a doctor visit. Whereas male gender, higher education, working with housekeeping, and better self-reported health status negatively predicted a doctor visit. The use of web search engines (OR = 2.95, 95%CI = 2.03-4.46), video search engines (OR = 1.43, 95%CI = 1.21-1.70, P < .001), social media (OR = 1.43, 95%CI = 1.20-1.69), and health apps (OR = 1.26, 95%CI = 1.13-1.42) positively predicted a decision to visit a doctor. Similarly, the use of web search engines (OR = 2.78, 95%CI = 192-4.18), video search engines (OR = 1.27, 95%CI = 1.07-1.51), social media (OR = 1.28, 95%CI = 1.10-1.49), and health apps (OR = 1.20, 95%CI = 1.07-1.35) positively predicted a decision not to visit a doctor. Older age and male gender negatively predicted both a decision to visit a doctor and not to visit a doctor, and more education positively predicted such decisions. Disability and other family welfare benefit positively predicted a decision to visit a doctor. Having a disease positively predicted a decision not to visit a doctor.
Conclusions:
Health information found on the Internet led to both deciding to visit a doctor and deciding not to visit a doctor, which indicates that the Internet is serving as a supplement to health care service rather than as a replacement. However, its effect on a decision to visit a doctor was slightly higher than its effect on a decision not to visit a doctor indicating an increase in doctor visits associated with the use of e-health services.
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.