Use of Health Information Among Older Adults: Trust and Source of Health Information by Gender and Region

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the health information seeking, acquisition, and trust with sources of information in older adults. A total of 400 men and women aged 60 and older responded to survey questions concerning their health-related characteristics and their trust in health information sources. More than half of the participants had been looking for health information in men and women. For the subjects living in urban area or men, first using channel when looked for information about health or medical topics was ‘Physician’, whereas first using channel was the ‘Family/friends’ for the subjects living in rural area or women. The most trust source of health information in the following order: physician, television programs, family/friends, magazines, newspapers, the radio, and the internet. In addition, these levels of trustworthiness were statistically significant difference according to region, age, education, and job status. Based on this study, further large-scale investigations are needed to generalize these results. In the future, health information providers will effectively offer the health information regarding the characteristics of the target subjects.