Online Health Information Seeking Behaviors Among Older Adults: Systematic Scoping Review

Abstract

Background With the world’s population aging, more health-conscious older adults are seeking health information to make better-informed health decisions. The rapid growth of the internet has empowered older adults to access web-based health information sources. However, research explicitly exploring older adults’ online health information seeking (OHIS) behavior is still underway. Objective This systematic 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 health information on the internet? (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 literature search was performed in November 2020, involving the following academic databases: Web of Science; Cochrane Library database; PubMed; MEDLINE; CINAHL Plus; APA PsycINFO; Library and Information Science Source; Library, Information Science and Technology Abstracts; Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection; Communication & Mass Media Complete; ABI/INFORM; and ACM Digital Library. The initial search identified 8047 publications through database search strategies. After the removal of duplicates, a data set consisting of 5949 publications was obtained for screening. Among these, 75 articles met the inclusion criteria. Qualitative content analysis was performed to identify themes related to the research questions. Results The results suggest that older adults seek 10 types of health information from 6 types of internet-based information sources and that 2 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 3 types of barriers, namely individual, social, and those related to information and communication technologies. Some intervention programs based on educational training workshops have been created to intervene and support older adults’ OHIS. Conclusions Although OHIS has become increasingly common among older adults, the review reveals that older adults’ OHIS behavior is not adequately investigated. The findings suggest that more studies are needed to understand older adults’ OHIS behaviors and better support their medical and health decisions in OHIS. Based on the results, the review proposes multiple objectives for future studies, including (1) more investigations on the OHIS behavior of older adults above 85 years; (2) conducting more longitudinal, action research, and mixed methods studies; (3) elaboration of the mobile context and cross-platform scenario of older adults’ OHIS; (4) facilitating older adults’ OHIS by explicating technology affordance; and (5) promoting and measuring the performance of OHIS interventions for older adults.

Effects of Internet-Based Nutrition and Exercise Interventions on the Prevention and Treatment of Sarcopenia in the Elderly

“…Therefore, the elderly are not unfamiliar with apps. A recent systematic revealed that older adults tend to use the Internet to search more disease-related health information than the adolescent and youth population [24]. Our study provided an app as a guiding tool for the elderly with sarcopenia to acquire accurate information in a convenient and low-cost approach [25].…”

Contexts and Outcomes of Proxy Online Health Information Seeking: Mixed Studies Review With Framework Synthesis

“…Proxy seekers also used the information to provide emotional [ 51 , 62 ] and material support, especially as informal caregivers [ 46 , 61 ] to the person. They used the information to change that person’s lifestyle; for example, mothers in 1 study cooked healthier food and encourage their families to walk together as a form of exercise [ 55 ].…”

“…These surrogate OHI seekers were more likely to live with others and more likely to search on behalf of their partners, children, or other family members rather than for friends or colleagues [11]. This finding was echoed in several studies that reported that the proxy seeker was most often a member of the same household or with whom the person had close ties [12,15,[46][47][48][49][50][51].…”

“…OHI seeking was triggered by different reasons and at different times in the included studies (Table 3). The proxy seeker may be asked explicitly to search for OHI on behalf of someone who is unable to search for themselves, who has a complex health situation, or who needs to confirm information they had found online themselves [51,55,60,61]. On the other hand, more studies report that the proxy seeker initiates the search unsolicited out of interest [15,61], when they do not have enough information to support a person living with a health condition [47,54], immediately following a diagnosis [62][63][64][65], or following a visit with a health care provider [62,66].…”

Access to Health Information in the Polish Healthcare System—Survey Research

“…Given the results of the offline study and the barriers to access to information online that elderly people encounter, it can be concluded that the Internet should be more and more often used as a tool to educate on patient safety, but must not be the only such tool [ 24 ]. The results of the questionnaires show that elderly people always prefer other media, like radio and TV.…”