Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Jul 22;16(7):e176.
doi: 10.2196/jmir.3499.

Online health information seeking behaviors of Hispanics in New York City: a community-based cross-sectional study

Young Ji Lee  1 , Bernadette Boden-Albala, Elaine Larson, Adam Wilcox, Suzanne Bakken
Affiliations

Online health information seeking behaviors of Hispanics in New York City: a community-based cross-sectional study

Young Ji Lee et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: The emergence of the Internet has increased access to health information and can facilitate active individual engagement in health care decision making. Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States and are also the most underserved in terms of access to online health information. A growing body of literature has examined correlates of online health information seeking behaviors (HISBs), but few studies have included Hispanics.

Objective: The specific aim of this descriptive, correlational study was to examine factors associated with HISBs of Hispanics.

Methods: The study sample (N=4070) was recruited from five postal zip codes in northern Manhattan for the Washington Heights Inwood Informatics Infrastructure for Comparative Effectiveness Research project. Survey data were collected via interview by bilingual community health workers in a community center, households, and other community settings. Data were analyzed using bivariate analyses and logistic regression.

Results: Among individual respondents, online HISBs were significantly associated with higher education (OR 3.03, 95% CI 2.15-4.29, P<.001), worse health status (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.31-0.57, P<.001), and having no hypertension (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.43-0.84, P=.003). Online HISBs of other household members were significantly associated with respondent factors: female gender (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.22-2.10, P=.001), being younger (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.62-0.90, P=.002), being married (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.09-1.71, P=.007), having higher education (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.404-2.316, P<.001), being in worse health (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.46-0.77, P<.001), and having serious health problems increased the odds of their household members' online HISBs (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.29-2.60, P=.001).

Conclusions: This large-scale community survey identified factors associated with online HISBs among Hispanics that merit closer examination. To enhance online HISBs among Hispanics, health care providers and policy makers need to understand the cultural context of the Hispanic population. Results of this study can provide a foundation for the development of informatics-based interventions to improve the health of Hispanics in the United States.

Keywords: Internet; consumer health information; health behavior; hispanic Americans; information seeking behavior.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

References

    1. Alpay L, Verhoef J, Toussaint P, Zwetsloot-Schonk B. What makes an "informed patient"? The impact of contextualization on the search for health information on the Internet. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2006;124:913–9. - PubMed
    1. Anker AE, Reinhart AM, Feeley TH. Health information seeking: a review of measures and methods. Patient Educ Couns. 2011 Mar;82(3):346–54. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2010.12.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Flynn KE, Smith MA, Freese J. When do older adults turn to the internet for health information? Findings from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. J Gen Intern Med. 2006 Dec;21(12):1295–301. doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00622.x. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/16995892 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Koch-Weser S, Bradshaw YS, Gualtieri L, Gallagher SS. The Internet as a health information source: findings from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey and implications for health communication. J Health Commun. 2010;15 Suppl 3:279–93. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2010.522700. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nauert RF. Telehealth Consumer-Provider Interaction: A Chronic Disease Intervention in an Underserved Population. Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin; 2002.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources