Trajectories and Influencing Factors of Online Health Information–Seeking Behaviors Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Longitudinal Mixed Methods Study

作者：Ting Wang, Qian Dong, Qun Sun, Hui Dong, Xiaolong Bu, Yanan Wang, Yanni Su, Cuiping Liu · 发表于：Journal of Medical Internet Research · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.2196/77549 · 被引用次数：9 · 研究领域：Technology Use by Older Adults、Health Literacy and Information Accessibility、Health and Wellbeing Research

Background: The internet has emerged as a critical avenue for the public to access health information resources. As online health information is a key resource for older adults, the factors influencing their online health information-seeking behaviors (OHISBs) are crucial. Objective: This study aims to examine the trajectories and influencing factors of OHISB among community-dwelling older adults and to explore their attitudes toward this information in daily contexts. Methods: A longitudinal mixed methods study was conducted involving 346 older adults from three communities in Shandong Province, China. In the quantitative phase, data were collected at three time points: baseline (T1), 6 months postbaseline (T2), and 12 months postbaseline (T3). Latent class growth modeling and logistic regression identified trajectories and predictors of OHISB, while a cross-lagged panel model analyzed longitudinal relationships among digital health literacy (DHL), technology anxiety (TA), and OHISB. Subsequently, we conducted semistructured, in-depth interviews with 16 older adults from different OHISB trajectory subgroups using a descriptive phenomenological approach. Quantitative and qualitative results were integrated via triangulation. Results: Latent class growth modeling identified three OHISB trajectories: low-level declining group (92/346, 26.6%), medium-level stable group (187/346, 54%), and high-level declining group (67/346, 19.4%). Multivariate logistic regression identified hou...