Online health information seeking, medical care beliefs and timeliness of medical check-ups among African Americans

Ornella Hills; Dhavan Shah

doi:10.1016/j.pec.2020.06.006

Online health information seeking, medical care beliefs and timeliness of medical check-ups among African Americans

Patient Educ Couns. 2020 Jun 18:S0738-3991(20)30324-4. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2020.06.006. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Ornella Hills¹, Dhavan Shah²

Affiliations

¹ University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 5115 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States. Electronic address: ohills@wisc.edu.
² University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 5115 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, United States. Electronic address: Dshah@wisc.edu.

PMID: 32616321
DOI: 10.1016/j.pec.2020.06.006

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationship among different types of internet sources for health, medical check-up beliefs and the timeliness of annual medical check-ups among African Americans, accounting for both health TV usage and health service use.

Methods: Hierarchical linear regression analysis was conducted on data from 1734 African Americans surveyed in the 2013 Consumer Health Multimedia Audience Research Systems national pharmaceutical study of 19,420 U.S. adults.

Results: The results indicate a positive association between seeking health information on medical websites (β = 0.052, p = 0.04) and consumer-driven health sites (β = 0.066, p < 0.01), and the timeliness of check-ups among African Americans, an association not found in relation to mainstream or news-related sites. Health TV program use was not associated with timeliness of medical check-ups. Medical check-up belief is positively associated with seeking health info on consumer-driven health sites (β = 0.072, p < 0.01) but not on medical sites or on TV.

Conclusion: Seeking information on health-specific websites was associated with more timely check-ups in African Americans and more positive preventative medical care belief, even after controlling for traditional barriers, such as poor provider relationship.

Practice implications: Health specific websites may provide an avenue for intervention to improve preventative care use in African Americans.

Keywords: Disparities; Internet use; Medical check-ups; OSOR communication model; Online health information-seeking; Periodic exams; Preventative medical care; TV use for health; eHealth.