Persistent Digital Divide in Access to and Use of the Internet as a Resource for Health Information: Results from a California Population-Based Study (International Journal of Medical Informatics)
Authors aimed to determine the prevalence and predictors of access to the Internet and use of the Internet to search for health information by analyzing data from the 2011-12 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) for all individuals 18 years of age and older. The study included an unweighted and survey-weighted sample of 42,935 and 27,796,484 individuals, respectively.
Findings showed that 81.5 percent of the weighted sample reported having previously used the Internet. Among Internet users, 64.5 percent stated that they used the Internet within the past year to find health or medical information. Racial/ethnic minorities, older individuals, and those who lived in lower-income households and rural areas were less likely to have access to and use the Internet to search for health information. Conversely, English-proficiency and increasing levels of education were positively associated with online health information-seeking.
Publication Authors:
- Amy Nguyen
- Sasan Mosadeghi
- Christopher Almario, MD, MSHPM