Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: May 26, 2022
Open Peer Review Period: May 26, 2022 - Jul 21, 2022
Date Accepted: Dec 21, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Factors Associated with Confidence in Health Information Access Using the Internet
ABSTRACT
Background:
Confidence in health information access is a measure of perceived ability to obtain health information. One’s beliefs, or perceived ability to access health information is particularly important in understanding trends in healthcare access. Previous literature has found that access to health information is lowest among society’s most vulnerable population groups. While health confidence has previously been used as a scale to measure health outcomes, limited research describes the factors associated with users confidence in health information access. This may be a key component to health information seeking that affects beneficial health outcomes such as prevention and treatment.
Objective:
This study examines the factors associated with the levels of confidence in health information access for adults aged 18 years and older in the United States.
Methods:
Using a cross-sectional design, secondary data from the Health Information National Trends Survey 5, Cycle 3 (2019) was analyzed. An adjusted ordinal logistic regression model was used to determine the association between demographic characteristics and level of confidence in health information access.
Results:
When the internet is the primary source for health information, high school graduates (AOR 0.58, 95% CI 0.37 - 0.89), Non-Hispanic Asians (AOR 0.44, 95% CI 0.24 - 0.82), males (AOR 0.72, 95% CI 0.54-0.97), and those who made between $20,000-$35,000 annually (AOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.31- 0.98) had significantly lower odds of being confident in obtaining health information via the internet. Moreover, when the internet is the primary source for health information, those with health insurance had significantly higher odds of being confident in obtaining health information (AOR 2.91, 95% CI 1.58 - 5.34). Also, a significant association was determined between confidence in health information access and (1) primary health information source and (2) frequency in visiting a healthcare provider.
Conclusions:
Confidence in accessing health information can differ by individual demographics. Accessing health-related information from the internet has become increasingly more common, and can provide insight on health information seeking behaviors. Further exploration of these factors can inform the science of health education by prov
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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.