Abstract:

Background and objectives:
Access to online health information may create better-informed individuals able to make informed health decisions. eHealth literacy refers to one’s ability to read, use computers, search, and understand online health information to solve a problem. Traditionally, males have been more active Internet users whereas females are more likely to seek online for health information. Health information seeking demands multiple resources and can be affected by many factors (i.e., sociodemographics, attitudes, and emotions) and places those from a lower socioeconomic status at a bigger disadvantage. The strong relationship between SES and health disparities has been observed for centuries and in many countries. In this study we aimed to explore the impact of emotions (i.e., fear, terror, satisfaction, complacent) after online search of health information towards health decision making and towards health disparities and eHealth literacy. We were also interested in examining any gender differences regarding online health information-seeking behavior.

Methods:
A total of 2,699 individuals (N = 2699) (1,753 female, 933 male, and 13 who chose not to define their gender) aged 17–84 years old (M = 31.18, SD = 13.47) participated in an online survey in summer of 2020. Participants resided in Greece and were recruited via the Internet through snowball sampling.

Results:
Preliminary analysis showed that positive emotions after online search of health information were positively related with (a) frequency of Internet use for health information (r = .35, p < .01), (b) perceived Internet’s advantages and disadvantages regarding its reliability (r = .51, p < .01), (c) changing decisions (r = .46, p < .01), (d) promoting self-efficacy (r = .47, p < .01), and (e) consulting others (r = .38, p < .01). Negative emotions after online search of health information were (a) negatively related with eHealth literacy (r = -.27, p < .01) and (b) positively related with perceived disparity (r = .20, p < .01).

Regarding positive and negative emotions experienced after online search of health information hierarchical regression analyses that followed showed that gender in both the first (Rnegative emotions2 = .06, Fnegative emotions(14, 2.684) = 12,575 p < .001, Rpositive emotions2 = .14, Fpositive emotions(14, 2.684) = 31,491 p<0,001) and the second step (Rnegative emotions2 = .08, Fnegative emotions(15, 2.683) = 16,954, p < .001, Rpositive emotions2 = .14, Fpositive emotions(15, 2.683) = 29,59, p < .001) were related to emotions.

Conclusions:
The more often participants used the Internet for health information the more positive emotions they experienced afterwards. Furthermore, the more positive emotions they experienced after online search, the more they were willing to use the information gathered. We also found that men that experience more positive emotions, in contrast with women who experience more negative, after online search of health information suggest that men and not women are more available to use the collected information.

Keywords:

Online health information-seeking behavior, health disparities, eHealth literacy, emotions, gender.