Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Department of Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
J Med Internet Res. 2022 Jan 13;24(1):e24086. doi: 10.2196/24086.
Although recent developments in mobile health have elevated the importance of how smartphones empower individuals to seek health information, research investigating this phenomenon in Asian countries has been rare.
The goal of our study was to provide a comprehensive profile of mobile health information seekers and to examine the individual- and country-level digital divide in Asia.
With survey data from 10 Asian countries (N=9086), we ran multilevel regression models to assess the effect of sociodemographic factors, technological factors, and country-level disparities on using smartphones to seek health information.
Respondents who were women (β=.13, P<.001), parents (β=.16, P<.001), employed (β=.08, P=.002), of higher social status (β=.08, P<.001), and/or from countries with low health expenditures (β=.19, P=.02) were more likely to use smartphones to seek health information. In terms of technological factors, technology innovativeness (β=.10, P<.001) and frequency of smartphone use (β=.42, P<.001) were important factors of health information seeking, whereas the effect of online information quality was marginal (β=-.04, P<.001).
Among smartphone users in Asia, health information seeking varies according to individuals' socioeconomic status, their innovativeness toward technology, and their frequency of smartphone use. Although smartphones widen the digital divide among individuals with different socioeconomic status, they also bridge the divide between countries with varying health expenditures. Smartphones appear to be a particularly useful complement to manage health in developing countries.
尽管移动健康领域的最新发展提高了智能手机赋予个人获取健康信息的能力的重要性，但在亚洲国家开展的相关研究却很少。
本研究旨在全面描绘移动健康信息寻求者的特征，并考察亚洲国家在个人和国家层面的数字鸿沟。
我们使用来自 10 个亚洲国家（N=9086）的调查数据，通过多水平回归模型评估社会人口因素、技术因素以及国家层面的差异对使用智能手机获取健康信息的影响。
研究结果表明，女性（β=.13，P<.001）、父母（β=.16，P<.001）、就业者（β=.08，P=.002）、社会地位较高者（β=.08，P<.001）以及来自医疗支出较低国家的受访者（β=.19，P=.02）更有可能使用智能手机获取健康信息。在技术因素方面，技术创新性（β=.10，P<.001）和智能手机使用频率（β=.42，P<.001）是健康信息寻求的重要因素，而在线信息质量的影响则较为有限（β=-.04，P<.001）。
在亚洲的智能手机用户中，健康信息寻求行为因个人的社会经济地位、对技术的创新性以及智能手机使用频率的不同而有所差异。尽管智能手机扩大了不同社会经济地位个体之间的数字鸿沟，但也弥合了医疗支出水平不同的国家之间的鸿沟。智能手机似乎是发展中国家管理健康的一种特别有用的补充手段。
