Table 2. Weighted a n (%) for health information seeking behavior and web-based health information seeking experiences by survey phases.
| Total | Phase 1 | Phase 2 | P | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health information seeking behaviors (at least once a week/1–3 times in a month/once in several months) b | ||||
| Traditional sources (television, radio, newspaper, and magazine) (n = 10141) | 3585 (35.4) | 1658 (32.6) | 1927 (38.1) | <0.001 |
| Internet websites (n = 10138) | 3739 (36.9) | 1771 (34.9) | 1968 (38.9) | <0.001 |
| Social networking sites (n = 10140) | 1810 (17.9) | 818 (16.1) | 992 (19.6) | <0.001 |
| Instant messaging (n = 10140) | 1304 (12.9) | 581 (11.4) | 723 (14.3) | <0.001 |
| Web-based health information seeking experiences (very much agree/somewhat agree) c | ||||
| It took a lot of effort to get the information you needed (n = 3530) | 1638 (46.4) | 771 (45.6) | 866 (47.2) | 0.45 |
| You felt frustrated during your search for the information (n = 3506) | 1049 (29.8) | 491 (29.1) | 555 (30.5) | 0.50 |
| The information you found was too hard to understand (n = 3560) | 1601 (45.0) | 694 (40.6) | 907 (49.0) | <0.001 |
| You were concerned about the quality of the information (n = 3546) | 2637 (74.4) | 1233 (72.3) | 1404 (76.3) | 0.03 |
a Weighted by sex, age, educational attainment according to Hong Kong Census.
b Frequency of health information seeking behavior was treated as a dummy variable (1 = “at least once a week/1–3 times in a month/once in several months” vs 0 = “seldom/never”).
c Agreement with web-based health information seeking experiences was treated as a dummy variable (1 = “very much agree/somewhat agree” vs 0 = “somewhat disagree/very much disagree”).