Older Adults’ Use of Online Health Information – Do They Even Try?

Abstract

Online health information holds the potential to support older adults in taking active control of their health and well-being. Yet, despite generally using the Internet, many seniors do not make use of health information provided via the Internet. Understanding why older Internet users do not use online health information is consequently of high importance. Drawing on post-adoption research, a model is developed and empirically validated that examines how the interplay of health need, health knowledge, exploratory IT behavior and benefit expectations jointly accounts for seniors’ online health information use. This research contributes to the literature by focusing explicitly on older adults and by providing a better understanding how health need and health knowledge enable and inhibit online health information use.