Examining Health Information–Seeking Behaviors of Older Adults
Open accessAbstract
This study aims to examine which resources older adults utilize for their health information needs, how trustworthy and reliable they find these resources, and the difficulties they face in obtaining health-related information. A 41-item survey designed to understand the information-seeking characteristics of older adults was developed and distributed to retirement communities. Some items were taken from the Health Information National Trends Survey. Of 1520 surveys, 403 were returned completed (26.6%). Respondents' mean age was 77.65 years. Average scores indicated respondents trusted particular sources of health information in the following order (highest to lowest): health care providers, pharmacists, friends and relatives, retirement community staff, newspapers, the Internet, television, and the radio. In conclusion, older adults have a greater amount of trust in a person with whom they are able to actively discuss their health as opposed to a nonliving source, which they have to access or manipulate, such as the Internet. Efforts must be made to help older adults better navigate and utilize the Internet and recognize dependable online sources so that they may increase their trust in its use, thereby increasing satisfaction with their own ability to seek and use sources of health information.
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The top priorities for seeking information were health care providers and pharmacists.
“The top priorities for seeking information were health care providers and pharmacists.”
From Benefits of, Barriers to, and Needs for an Artificial Intelligence–Powered Medication Information Voice Chatbot for Older Adults: Interview Study With Geriatrics Experts (2022) · cites this paper as [16]
The Abstract ranks health care providers and pharmacists first and second for trust in health-information sources. But the Discussion distinguishes trust from where participants actually sought information: health care providers were cited most often, followed by the Internet, not pharmacists. The claim does not make that distinction. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredA survey showed that older adults placed living resources higher than nonliving resources for health information needs.
“A survey conducted to identify the resources that were trusted more [16] for health information needs showed that older adults placed living resources higher than nonliving resources.”
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- Authors
- CHAUDHURI, S., LE, T., WHITE, C., THOMPSON, H., & DEMIRIS, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Venue
- CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing
- Published
- 2013-11
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 547-553
- ISSN
- 1538-2931 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4062544
- OpenAlex
- W2091918360
- Cited by
- 175
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 9.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- CIN Computers Informatics Nursing (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. National Library of Medicine (T15LM007442)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Social Sciences › Demography › Technology Use by Older Adults
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Sciences Research and Education
- Keywords
- health information seeking, older adults, trust in health information sources, health information needs, retirement communities, online health information, internet use by older adults, source reliability, healthcare workers, pharmacists
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, United States, Internet, Information Seeking Behavior
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