Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 14, 2023
Date Accepted: Feb 8, 2024
Online Health Information Seeking and Preventative Health Actions: Cross-generational Mediation Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The popularity of online health information seeking (OHIS) has increased significantly due to its accessibility and affordability. To facilitate better health management, it is essential to comprehend the generational differences in OHIS behavior and preventative health actions (PHA) after seeking online health information (OHI).
Objective:
This research investigates the variations in OHIS and engagement in PHA between two generations based on their technology usage (digital natives: ages 18-41 and digital immigrants: 42 and above). Additionally, this research explores the mediating role of OHIS types on the generational effect on PHA and the moderating role of OHI search frequency on the generational effect on OHIS types and PHA.
Methods:
A pre-registered online survey was conducted on the Prolific online data collection platform, using stratified sampling of two generations (digital natives and digital immigrants) from the United States in September 2022. Three types of OHIS were collected: health wellness information search (HWIS), health guidance information search (HGIS), and health management information search (HMIS). One-way ANCOVA tested the generational differences in types of OHIS and PHA, and two-way ANCOVA tested the moderating role of OHIS search frequency. Two generations were used as the independent variable, three types of OHIS and PHA as dependent variables, and three control variables (the quality of online health information, trust in online health information, and online information search skills). Process Model 4 was used to conduct mediation analysis, testing OHI search types as mediators. In addition, two-way ANCOVA explored gender and chronic disease as moderators and linear regression analysis tested age as a predictor of OHIS and PHA (not outlined in pre-registration).
Results:
The analysis of 1471 responses revealed generational differences in OHIS. Digital natives searched for HWI more frequently (P<.001), while digital immigrants searched for HMI (P<.05) and HGI (P<.01) more frequently. Additionally, there were no significant differences between the two generations in terms of engaging in PHA after searching OHI (P=.35). Moreover, all three types of OHIS mediated the relationship between generational differences and PHA. However, the frequency of OHIS did not moderate the relationship between generations on OHIS types and PHA. Furthermore, exploratory analyses revealed that gender only moderated the relationship between generations and HGIS (P<.05), and chronic disease only moderated the relationship between generations and HMIS (P<.01) and PHA (P<.001). Additionally, as people age, they search for significantly less HWI (P<.001), and more (P<.01) HGI and HMI.
Conclusions:
To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to explore how two digital generations vary in differences in searching for OHI. As the elderly population grows, it is particularly crucial to understand their OHIS behavior and how they engage in preventative health behaviors to enhance their quality of life. Clinical Trial: n/a
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