Determinants of online health information-seeking: Extending Andersen's healthcare model to examine choices made about health information sources

Little is known about the influence of health status on online health information seeking. Demographic and socioeconomic factors are consistently found to influence where a person chooses to seek health information; however, the effect of health status appears to be more complex. Using Andersen's utilization of healthcare model as a framework, I examine the effects of health status in conjunction with socioeconomic and demographic factors to better understand the influence of health status. The data for this project came from the HINTS 2007. The relationships were tested using logistic regression analysis. Health status was found to have an influence on online health information seeking, but only when demographic and socioeconomic factors were not controlled. Health status did not have a statistically significant effect in the model containing the demographic and socioeconomic control variables. Income and education were found to have the strongest influence on online health information seeking.