A Study On The Selection Of Health Information Sources And Its Influencing Factors For Urban Elderly In The West Lake District Of Hangzhou

At present,the health status of the elderly is generally worrying,the demand for health information is increasing,but the health information literacy of them is low and their ability to choose health information sources is weak.Under this double contradiction,this study starts with the health status of the elderly,conduct field surveys to understand the health information needs of the elderly,explore the key influencing factors for the selection of health information sources,and seek solutions to related issues.The study collected research data through a method of semi-structured in-depth interviews.30 city elderly(over 60 years old)in Xihu District of Hangzhou were selected as the research objects.Each interviewee conducted an interview about 42.5minutes,and the word count for the interviews texts accumulated more than 140,000.Based on the Grounded Theory,the study uses the software called NVivo11 to encode the interview text data at three levels to explore the characteristics of health information acquisition behaviors,needs and sources,and the influence factors of health information source choices for urban elderly people.Based on this,a model was constructed,and an explanatory understanding of the choice of urban health information sources and their influential factors was obtained.The research results show that the health information that the urban elderly are concerned about and need are mainly four categories: health life related information,environment and health related information,disease related information,and medical related information.The characteristics of health information acquisition behaviors of them include active attention,passive attention(including information encounters),disregard and information avoidance.Some research subjects also indicated that they did not have(or did not realize)the need for health information.The health information needs of urban elderly and the characteristic types of health information acquisition behavior will affect their preferences.The sources of health information they access and use include the Internet and related new media,traditional media,interpersonal relationships,professional channels,community and social institutionsand their staffs,and their own knowledge / memory / experience / experience.The factors that influence the choice of health information sources for the elderly in the city mainly include the five categories of information factors,resource factors,context factors,environmental factors,and personal characteristics.In this study,the health information sources of urban elderly can be re-integrated and classified into accessible information sources,actual contact information sources and actual use information sources,which are progressively advanced.More specifically,the main influencing factors affecting the availability of respondents to a certain health information source are resource factors,environmental factors and personal characteristics.Among the available health information sources,information,context,and personal characteristics affect interviewees’ exposure to information sources.In specific practice,these three factors will comprehensively affect the health information sources they contact,and finally make a decision to adopt one or more information sources.