Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 1, 2021
Date Accepted: Oct 29, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Dec 3, 2021
Frequency of Online Health Information Seeking and Types of Information Sought Among the General Chinese Population: A Cross-sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The Internet is one of the most popular resources of health information, and the Chinese constitute one fifth of the world’s online users. As Internet penetration continues to rise, more details on Chinese individuals seeking online health information need to be known on the basis of the current literature.
Objective:
This study aims to determine the sociodemographic differences in online health information seeking (OHIS), including the frequency of OHIS and the types of online health information sought among the general Chinese population in mainland China.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study for assessing the residents’ healthcare needs with self-administered questionnaire was implemented in four counties/districts in China from July to August 2018. Pearson’s chi-square test was used to identify the association between sociodemographic characteristics and the frequency of OHIS. We also performed binary logistic regression for the seven types of online health information as the outcome variables, with sociodemographic factors as independent variables.
Results:
Among 12,646 respondents, 42.34% (5354/12,646) had sought health information from the Internet. Compared with infrequent seekers of online health information, frequent seekers were more likely to be female (1654/3318, 49.85% vs. 1015/1831, 55.43%), were older (454/3318, 13.68% vs. 282/1831, 15.40%), were married (2649/3318, 79.84% vs. 1537/1831, 83.94%), were better educated (834/3318, 25.14% vs. 566/1831, 30.91%), and earned a higher income (834/3318, 25.14% vs. 566/1831, 30.91%). Health science popularization (3654/5149, 70.79%), nutrition and diet (2795/5149, 54.28%), and traditional Chinese medicine (1931/5149, 37.50%) were the three most searched types of online health information among Chinese online users. Health science popularization, the most searched online health information, was most likely to be sought by respondents who were male (AOR 1.14, 95% CI 1.00-1.29), were better educated (all Ps<0.05; AORs>1), and had no commercial health insurance (AOR 0.83, 95% CI 0.71-0.96).
Conclusions:
Sociodemographic factors were found to be associated with the frequency and types of online health information sought among the general Chinese population. This result reminds providers of online health information to consider the needs of specific population groups when presenting health information to their users.
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