Measuring online health information seeking skills and its related factors in a middle-aged population

Background: Internet is an important source of online health information seeking. Middle-aged people, may face more health-threatening challenges if they lack seeking skills. Therefore, the evaluation of seeking skills on health information in middle-aged people needs to be further studied. Objectives: The purpose of this paper was to examine the Online Health Information-Seeking Skills (OHISS) and its related factors in middle-aged people. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 on 430 middle-aged people in Kashan. Participants were selected with the cluster-random method. The data were collected using the Online Health Information Seeking Skills scale (OHISS), Social Participation, and Attitude General Technology questionnaires. The data were analyzed using t-test, Pearson's correlation, and liner regression using SPSS 16.0 statistical software. Results: The mean (SD) age of participants was 47.69 (5.96) years old. The mean (SD) score of OHISS was 60.31 (20.86) on a scale of 0 to 100. Pearson correlation coefficients showed a positive correlation between OHISS with technology attitude (r= 0.45, p<0.001), and social participation (r= 0.17, p=0.003), and a negative correlation with age (r= -0.22, p<0.001). There was a significant relationship between OHISS and education (t= -3.97, p<0.001), and was no significant relationship with gender, marital status, occupational status, and income (p>0.05). Liner regarrison analysis shows that age, education, and technology attitude explained 30% of the OHISS variance in middle-aged people. Conclusion: Internet skills are the key to achieving online health information. Assessing the level of skills and its predictors can be an intervention guide for health policymakers to prevent health inequalities and help maintain or improve the health of middle-aged people.