The Relationships Between Psychological Distress and General Health Information Seeking and Online Health Information Seeking

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships between substance abuse (smoking and drinking behaviors), psychological distress, and two types of health information seeking (i.e., health information seeking [HIS] and online health information seeking [OHIS]). To address this purpose, this study applies the Common-Sense Model as a theoretical framework for explaining the relationships between various predictors and HIS and OHIS. The data used in this research was taken from the 2012 Health Information National Trends Survey. The current research consisted of three analyzing steps. In the first step, cases with missing data on any of the study variables were excluded using the listwise deletion method. Thus, only the cases with completed responses (N = 2,982) were included in the first analysis. In the second step, only the respondents seeking health information (N = 2,440) were included in the second analysis (i.e., 542 non-health information seekers were excluded). In third step, only the respondents (N = 2,111) who use the Internet from the sample of the second step were included in the third analysis. 

For each model, the same focal predictors (i.e., substance abuses and psychological distress) and covariates were included. In model 1, being male (odds ratio [OR] .49), higher education (college degree, compared to less than high school graduation, OR 4.26), higher income (OR 1.22), cancer diagnosis of family members (OR 1.57), and higher psychological distress (OR 1.08) were positively associated with the HIS. In model 2, information seekers’ lower age (OR .95), higher education (OR 3.60) were associated with OHIS. In model 3, lower ages (OR 0.97) and being unemployed (OR 0.64) was significantly associated with OHIS in information seekers using the Internet.

This study found that psychological distress significantly predicts HIS, but not OHIS of information seekers via all information sources and information seekers using the Internet. Getting health information has become an important issue for people to not only increase health care, but also to reduce their health risks. Thus, it is crucial for people engaging in health care to build an empirical evidence base on HIS and OHIS for those who want to enhance self-care. The current research has several notable implications for people who want to secure their health care by using an Information and Communication Technology (ICT), as well as it gives a theoretical background for researchers who want to study health information seeking via the Internet in the field of health care.