Table 1.
Description of variables
| Name | Description | Mean (SD) |
|---|---|---|
| HIi | Frequency of health information search on the Internet in the last 12 months | |
| = 1 if the respondent did not seek health information online | ||
| = 2 if the respondent sought health information online a few times a year | 0.17 | |
| = 3 if the respondent sought health information online every two months | 0.04 | |
| = 4 if the respondent sought health information online once a month | 0.12 | |
| = 5 if the respondent sought health information online several times a month | 0.08 | |
| = 6 if the respondent sought health information online once a week or more often | 0.09 | |
| HIni | Frequency of health information search on non-Internet sources in the last 12 months | |
| = 1 if the respondent did not seek health information offline | ||
| = 2 if the respondent sought health information offline a few times a year | 0.16 | |
| = 3 if the respondent sought health information offline every two months | 0.03 | |
| = 4 if the respondent sought health information offline once a month | 0.08 | |
| = 5 if the respondent sought health information offline several times a month | 0.05 | |
| = 6 if the respondent sought health information offline once a week or more often | 0.08 | |
| HIS | Types of health information seekers | |
| = 0 if the respondent reports not seeking health information | ||
| = 1 if the respondent reports using the Internet for health information purposes | 0.51 | |
| = 2 if the respondent reports seeking health information offline and not online | 0.19 | |
| PV | Frequency of physician visitation in past 12 months | |
| = 1 if the respondent did not visit physician | ||
| = 2 if the respondent visited physician 1 or 2 times | 0.37 | |
| = 3 if the respondent visited physician 3 to 5 times | 0.24 | |
| = 4 if the respondent visited physician 6 times or more | 0.23 | |
| DENSITY | Number of medical doctors per hundred thousand inhabitants at NUTS2 level | 325.83 (114.73) |
| INTERNET | Internet penetration rate (in percentage) at NUTS2 level | 77.92 (11.10) |
| Health-related variables | ||
| Health | Self-assessed health status (reference category: very bad) | |
| FBAD | = 1 if the respondent reports health status as fairly bad | 0.11 |
| FGOOD | = 1 if the respondent reports health status as fairly good | 0.61 |
| VGOOD | = 1 if the respondent reports health status as very good | 0.25 |
| LONGILL | = 1 if respondent reports suffering from a long-term health issue | 0.46 |
| Sport | Respondent’s frequency of sport or exercise practice (reference category: none) | |
| MONTH | = 1 if the respondent plays sport or exercises less than once a month | 0.08 |
| 1–3 MONTH | = 1 if the respondent plays sport or exercises 1 to 3 times a month | 0.05 |
| 1–2 WEEK | = 1 if the respondent plays sport or exercises 1 to 2 times a week | 0.22 |
| 3–4 WEEK | = 1 if the respondent plays sport or exercises 3 to 4 times a week | 0.17 |
| 5 WEEK | = 1 if the respondent plays sport or exercises 5 times a week or more | 0.23 |
| Socio-demographic variables | ||
| FEMALE | = 1 if respondent is female | 0.61 |
| ONEADULT | = 1 if household consists of one adult | 0.25 |
| Employment | Respondent’s employment status (reference category: inactive) | |
| EMPLOYED | = 1 if the respondent is employed | 0.46 |
| UNEMPLOY | = 1 if the respondent is unemployed | 0.04 |
| Area | Size of the residence area (reference category: rural area or village) | |
| SMALL | = 1 if the respondent lives in a small medium-sized town | 0.37 |
| LARGE | = 1 if the respondent lives in a large town/city | 0.31 |
| Education | Respondent’s age when stopped full-time education (reference category: no full-time education) | |
| EDU15 | = 1 if the respondent stopped full-time education at 15 years old or less | 0.13 |
| EDU19 | = 1 if the respondent stopped full-time education between 16 and 19 years old | 0.37 |
| EDU20 | = 1 if the respondent stopped full-time education at 20 years old or higher | 0.43 |
| STUDY | = 1 if the respondent is still studying | 0.05 |
| AGE | Respondent's age (in years) | 53.25 (18.04) |
| Country | 28 dummies, in which = 1 for the country where the respondent lives | |
Note: For the four variables on health information seeking and physician visitation, the reported numbers represent the share of respondents reporting the corresponding ordered choice. SD stands for standard deviation