JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Although recent developments in mobile health (mHealth) have elevated the importance of assessing the extent to which smartphones empower individuals to seek information online, research in Asian countries investigating the behavior of seeking health information on smartphones has been rare.

Objective:

The twofold goal of our study was to provide a comprehensive profile of mobile health information seekers in 10 Asian countries and to examine the individual- and country-level digital divide in mobile health information seeking in Asia.

Methods:

With survey data from 10 Asian countries (N = 9,086), we ran multilevel regression models to assess the effects of sociodemographic factors, technological factors, and country-level disparity on using smartphones to seek health information.

Results:

Respondents who were women (β = .14, p < .001), parents (β = .16, p < .001), employed (β = .07, p = .009), of higher social status (β = .10, p < .001), and/or from countries with less health expenditure (β = .20, p = .002) were more likely to use smartphones to seek health information. Technological factors, especially the technology innovativeness (β = .11, p < .001) and frequency of smartphone use (β = .41, p < .001), were important factors of such information-seeking behavior.

Conclusions:

Among smartphone users in Asia, health information seeking varies according to individuals’ socioeconomic status, their concerns with the quality of online information, their innovativeness towards technology, and the government’s health-related expenditure in their respective countries. Although smartphones widen the digital divide among individuals with different socioeconomic status, they also bridge the divide between countries with varying health expenditures. Especially in developing areas, smartphones appear to be a particularly useful complement to seeking health-related information.