Media Complementarity and Health Information Acquisition: A Cross-sectional Analysis of the 2017 HINTS-China Survey

Abstract

Given the myriad of media channels and available health information, it is important to investigate how health consumers navigate and choose from multiple media channels in seeking health information and their preferences among different media sources. Previous research has routinely measured health information-seeking behavior (HISB), especially online health information seeking as a whole, which does not capture the complexity and diversity of media channels used in HISB. On the basis of the channel complementarity theory, this study further classified new media into search engines, social media, and mobile health applications. The results of a secondary analysis of the Health Information National Trends Survey in China (HINTS-China) reinforced the occurrence of media complementary between information-oriented media (newspapers and magazines) and entertainment-oriented media (television). In addition, people used traditional media complementarily with new media, except information-oriented media and search engine use exhibited a displacement relationship. Moreover, the results indicated different profiles of health information seekers varied according to the diverse media channels, although media trust, perceived poor health status, chronic disease, and family cancer history consistently propelled HISB for both online and offline media channels. Implications for theory and practice for health communication were discussed.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the HINTS-China research program for sharing the data used for this study.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.