Study On Internet Health Information Seeking Behavior Of Middle-aged Urban Residents And Its Influencing Factors

This study takes middle-aged urban residents in eastern China as the research object,explores the factors affecting their health information seeking behavior and the relationship between these factors,hoping to help popularize health information literacy education and improve their health information acquisition status among middle-aged urban residents.Based on the relevant research,the author designed the questionnaire and built up the structural equation model of influencing factors of health information seeking behavior.A sample of 470 middle-aged urban residents were collected in developed areas in eastern China,including Jiangsu,Zhejiang,Shanghai,and Guangdong,through online and offline methods.SPSS 21.0 and Mplus 7.4 are used for data analysis.The results of this study show that the overall health status of middle-aged urban residents in eastern China is not very well,and they are faced with many health problems.Middle-aged urban residents have a greater demand for disease prevention,disease treatment,and health care.They are more focused on heath topics about the nutritional diet,hypertension,hyperlipidemia and hyperglycemia.There are significant individual differences in the types of information needs of middle-aged urban residents.Groups with high socioeconomic status are more concerned with health care information,while middle and lower levels have higher demand for bone-related diseases and drug information.Medical staff will pay more attention to drug information because of their special occupation.The Internet is the most commonly used health information acquisition channel for middle-aged urban residents,with the highest usage rate of search engines and social media,and low usage rate of health apps and other Internet channels.Those with higher socioeconomic status have a higher incidence of health information seeking than those with lower socioeconomic status.Women search more frequently than men's health information,and medical staff search for health information on the Internet more frequently than people in general occupations.The study also found that health information literacy has a significant positive impact on the health information search intention and health information search behavior of middle-aged urban residents;social support has a significant positive impact on behavioral intention;perceived risk has a significant positive impact on health anxiety;but health anxiety and medical convenience have no significant effect on behavioral intention.The study believes that it is necessary to improve health information services from information providers such as libraries,medical information service providers,and relevant government departments.