Social Determinants of Health Information Seeking among Chinese Adults in Hong Kong

Abstract

BackgroundHealth communication inequalities were observed in Western population but less is known about them among the Chinese. We investigated health information seeking behaviours and its social determinants among Chinese adults in Hong Kong.MethodsProbability-based sample surveys over telephone were conducted in 2009, 2010/11 and 2012 to monitor family health and information use. Frequency of health information seeking from television, radio, newspapers/magazines and Internet were recorded and dichotomised as ≥1 time/month and <1 time/month (reference). Logistic regression was used to yield adjusted odds ratios (aOR) of health information seeking for different demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status (education, employment and income), chronic disease and behaviours (smoking, drinking and physical activity).ResultsAmong 4553 subjects in all surveys, most (85.1%) had sought health information monthly from newspapers/magazines (66.2%), television (61.4%), radio (35.6%) or Internet (33.2%). Overall, being male, lower education attainment, lower household income, ever-smoking and physical inactivity were associated with less frequent health information seeking (all P <0.05). Compared with younger people, older people were less likely to search health information from Internet but more like to obtain it from radio (both P for trend <0.001). Having chronic diseases was associated with frequent health information seeking from television (aOR = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.07–1.47) and Internet (aOR = 1.46, 95% CI: 1.24–1.73).ConclusionsThis study has provided the first evidence on health information inequalities from a non-Western population with advanced mass media and Internet penetration. Socioeconomic inequalities and behavioural clustering of health information seeking suggested more resources are needed for improving health communication in disadvantage groups.

The Chinese adaptation of Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short version in Hong Kong adults: a population study

“…We found lower household income seemed to predict higher risk of PMPU but the results were inconsistent, as we found SAS-SV score was not associated with household income in the poorest category. This contrasted to the strong and consistent associations between higher SES and internet health information seeking and smartphone health apps possession (the inverse ICT law) observed in our earlier studies [17,18]. It is possible that respondents in the lowest income group may avoid heavy use of smartphones to reduce the expenditure incurred from or cannot afford buying a more expensive pre-paid data package for mobile internet services.…”

“…The Survey aimed to examine the use of ICTs in relation to family and individual health and behavior in the Hong Kong general public. Details of the methods have been reported in previous phases of the Survey [17,18]. The present phase, conducted from February to May 2017, included the pattern of PMPU.…”

Associations of Self-rated Health and Socioeconomic Status with Information Seeking and Avoiding Behavior among Post-Treatment Cancer Patients

“…In examining the close links between information avoiders and social class, many scholars have predicted that information avoidance consistently prevails in the lower social class (Ramanadhan and Viswanath, 2006;Rutten et al, 2006;Ishikawa et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2013). However, this should be supported by significant associations between socioeconomic backgrounds and SRH in the avoider group.…”

“…Sociodemographic antecedents (SDA) such as gender and age are important, with men and younger-age subjects more likely to engage in information seeking behavior than women and older subjects (Rutten et al, 2006;Mayer et al, 2007;Vanderpool et al, 2009;Viswanath et al, 2013;Wang et al, 2013). However, compared to HISBs, not much is known about HIABs, and more scientific evidence is needed to verify the complex relationship between the factors within the SIM framework.…”

Macroeconomic policies and increasing social-health inequality in Iran

“…Public health, it was concluded, should be more concerned with social policies and social determinants than with health services and disease control (41). Health Impact Assessment (HIA) serves as a tool for policy-makers and planners when considering a new policy (42)(43)(44)(45)(46). Based on our finding, in Iran the most priorities on macroeconomics which affect health inequalities was economic instability.…”