Modeling Access Across the Digital Divide for Intersectional Groups Seeking Web-Based Health Information: National...

Area of Science:

• Health disparities research
• Digital divide studies
• Online health information seeking (OHIS)

Background:

• The digital divide highlights technological disparities based on demographics like race and ethnicity.
• Limited internet access hinders online health information seeking (OHIS), worsening health disparities.
• This study integrates digital divide and OHIS research to explore context-device access pairings across intersectional identities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how various internet access types relate to OHIS for different racial and ethnic groups.
• To examine the interplay of predisposing characteristics, internet access, health needs, and OHIS.
• To understand unique access patterns and their influence on OHIS within diverse populations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the 2019 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS).
• Employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze relationships within a theoretical OHIS model.
• Conducted separate SEM analyses for Black, Latine, and White participants to compare group differences.

Main Results:

• Predisposing characteristics, internet access, and health needs all influenced OHIS.
• Home computer and mobile access were most consistently linked to OHIS.
• Significant differences in internet access predictors were observed between racial and ethnic groups, particularly for older minorities.

Conclusions:

• Physical internet access, a core component of the digital divide, uniquely impacts OHIS for specific racial and ethnic groups.
• Findings reveal distinct effects of context-device access pairings on OHIS and differing relationships across racial/ethnic lines.
• Recommends intersectional interventions addressing access to mitigate the digital divide's impact on OHIS.