Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Nov 8, 2021
Date Accepted: Jan 12, 2022
Online Health Information-Seeking Behaviors among Older Adults: Systematic Scoping Review
ABSTRACT
Background:
With the world population aging, more health-conscious older adults are seeking health information in order to make better-informed health decisions. The rapid growth of the internet has empowered older adults to access online health information sources. However, research explicitly exploring older adults’ online health information-seeking (OHIS) behavior is still under investigation.
Objective:
This scoping review aims to understand older adults’ OHIS and answer four research questions: (1) What types of health information do older adults seek and where do they seek online health information? (2) What are the factors that influence older adults’ OHIS? (3) What are the barriers to older adults’ OHIS? (4) How can we intervene and support older adults’ OHIS?
Methods:
A comprehensive search of literature was performed in November 2020, involving 12 academic databases: Web of Science; the Cochrane Library database; PubMed; Medline; CINAHL Plus; APA PsycINFO; Library and Information Science Source; Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts; the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection; Communication and Mass Media Complete; ABI/INFORM; and ACM Digital Library. The initial search identified 8,047 publications through database search strategies. After the removal of duplicates, a dataset consisting of 5,949 publications was obtained for screening. Seventy-five articles met the inclusion criteria. A qualitative content analysis was performed to identify themes that related to the research questions.
Results:
The results suggest that older adults seek ten types of health information from six kinds of online information sources and that two main categories of influencing factors, individual-related and source-related, impact older adults’ OHIS. Moreover, the results reveal that, in their OHIS, older adults confront three kinds of barriers – individual, social, and ICT-related barriers. Some intervention programs based on educational training workshops have been created to intervene and support older adults’ OHIS.
Conclusions:
Although OHIS has been increasingly common among older adults, the review revealed that older adults’ OHIS is still an under-investigated behavior. The findings suggest that more studies are needed to understand older adults’ OHIS and to better support their medical and health decision making in OHIS. Based on the results, the review proposes multiple agenda items for future studies.
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