The Heterogeneous Influences of Online Health Information Seeking on Aspirin Use for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
Authors: Jingrong Zhu, PhD; Yunfeng Shi, PhD; Yi Cui, PhD; Wei Yan, Ph.D., Penn State
Making decisions related to health and healthcare is an important part of life for most consumers. As sources of health information have expanded explosively, consumers’ information seeking and processing in the context of health decision making have also become increasingly complicated.
Previous research has shown that online health information seeking is associated with medication adherence. However, less is known about the factors that moderate such a relationship. This study examines four different sources of health information jointly and their interactive roles in consumers’ decisions on using aspirin for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention: the advice from health care providers, prior CVD diagnosis, CVD risk factors due to co-morbidities, and online health information.
Our results indicated that online health information seeking had heterogeneous influences on aspirin use for CVD prevention, depending on other factors such as provider advice, prior CVD diagnoses, and CVD risk factors, and potentially leading to both overuse and underuse.
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