Assessing the significance of health information seeking in chronic condition management

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.