Online health information seeking behaviors among U.S. adults: an age-period-cohort analysis

Health Information Technology (HIT) use among U.S. adults has been a widely researched topic in recent years. Previous studies generally focused on HIT use of a specific adult subsample, e.g., older adults or sexual minorities, while few had encompassed the comprehensive adult population in the U.S. and explored both the individual and societal trends in HIT usage. Capitalizing on five waves of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2022) and applying an age-cohort-period (APC) design, we successfully disentangled the three collinear factors (i.e., age, period and cohort) and explored their respective effects on HIT use. Similar to previous studies, age negatively predicts one’s HIT usage. We also observed inter-cohort differences in HIT usage, with the baby boomer cohort displaying the highest acceptance of HIT. While the period effects were not statistically significant, it is clear that societal acceptance of HIT has been rising in recent years. Additionally, we explored three heterogeneous factors in the APC effects: gender, race, and education. Gender and race displayed both age – and cohort-related heterogeneity, while education only exhibited age-related heterogeneity.