Assessing the significance of health information seeking in chronic condition management.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the relationship between health information seeking and confidence in performing self-management activities, and to assess the influence of predisposing, enabling, and perceive need factors on confidence to perform self-management activities among adults with chronic conditions.


METHODS
The sample included 6724 adults from the 2007 Health Tracking Household Survey who were ≥18 years with a chronic condition. Binary logistic regression examined the relationship between health information seeking, predisposing, enabling, and perceive need factors and confidence in performing three self-management activities; prevent symptoms, tell doctor concerns, and know when to get medical care.


RESULTS
Analyses indicated that 63.7% of adults sought health information. Rural residents who sought health information had 50% (95% CI: 0.28-0.89) lower odds of being confident to tell doctor concerns compared to urban residents who did not seek health information.


CONCLUSIONS
The relationship between health information seeking and confidence to perform self-management varies by self-management activity. Rurality, education level, having a usual source of care, and perceived health status strongly predict confidence to perform self-management activities.


CONCLUSIONS
Self-management strategies should incorporate health information seeking behavior that will enhance confidence to perform specific self-management activities, and should incorporate predisposing, enabling, and perceive need factors.
School of Health Science, Oakland University, Rochester, USA. Electronic address: caressdean@oakland.edu.
Caress A
CA
Dean
Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, USA.
Christian J
CJ
Geneus
Department of Health Management and Policy, Saint Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice, St. Louis, USA.
Shahida
S
Rice
St. Louis Regional Health Commission, St. Louis, USA.
Marquisha
M
Johns
Meridian Health, St. Louis, USA.
Delores
D
Quasie-Woode
Department of Health Management and Policy, Saint Louis University's College for Public Health and Social Justice, St. Louis, USA.
Kevin
K
Broom
School of Public Health, Samford University College of Health Sciences, Birmingham, USA.
Keith
K
Elder
D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000628:therapy*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D012648:Self Care; D014481:United States
Chronic condition; Health information seeking; Patient activation; Self-management