A Meta-Analysis of Factors Related to Health Information Seeking: An Integration from Six Theoretical Frameworks

Prior studies have investigated the antecedents of Health Information Seeking (HIS) using different theoretical frameworks, whereas inconsistencies in reported findings warrant a more comprehensive synthesis this body knowledge. This meta-analysis identified 12 major HIS from six widely used information seeking models examining HIS, developed an organizing framework that segmented current into cognitive, affective, sociocultural, and carrier categories, compared their associations with by meta-analyzing 89 empirical ( N = 62,957). Results showed seeking-related subjective norms utility yielded strongest cognitive affective factors demonstrated weaker HIS. Illness types, information-seeking channels, sampling methods significantly moderated between some predictors Implications directions for future research were discussed.