Table 4.
Factor loadings of each item and variance explained by each factor
| Factor | Items | Factor loading | % of Variance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Health Information Need (HIN) | Q24: I would use the internet to look up things so that I wouldn’t worry about them anymore | 0.769 | 20.34 |
| Q25: I would use the internet to look up information about herbs and/or supplements | 0.826 | ||
| Q26: I would use the internet to look up symptoms | 0.857 | ||
| Q27: I would use the internet to search for information about my health | 0.831 | ||
| Q28: I would use the internet to find information about medications | 0.842 | ||
| 2 Computer Anxiety (CA) | Q15: Using the computer is boring for me | 0.827 | 12.68 |
| Q21: When I use the Internet, I would get frustrated and tired with the amount of information I found about health | 0.706 | ||
| Q22: I think that searching for information would be stressful | 0.749 | ||
| Q23: If I went on the internet, I would find sorting through information to be too time consuming | 0.769 | ||
| 3 Computer/Internet Experience, Expertise (CIEE) | Q14: When I use a computer, I would be able to figure out most problems that I might run into | 0.642 | 9.35 |
| Q16: When I use a computer, I would have access to the internet | 0.752 | ||
| Q17: Using the internet is easy for me | 0.716 | ||
| Q18: Using the email service is easy for me | 0.799 | ||
| 4 Preferred Mode of Interaction (PMI) | Q5: I trust the internet as a source for health information | 0.675 | 7.08 |
| Q8: Looking up health concerns on the internet is more convenient for me than contacting a doctor’s office | 0.585 | ||
| Q9: I prefer calling my doctor’s office to emailing them | 0.664 | ||
| Q10: I would email my doctor because it is easier than going to the office | 0.732 | ||
| Q11: Looking up information online about medications is easier than asking my doctor | 0.620 | ||
| 5 No News is Good News (NNGN) | Q2: People today want to know more about their health | 0.859 | 6.08 |
| Q3: Regarding my health, I agree with the statement “No news is good news.” | 0.802 | ||
| Q6: I am concerned about what I might find on the Internet about my health problems | 0.841 | ||
| 6 Relationship with Doctor (RWD) | Q1: I let my doctor to control the details of my health | 0.738 | 5.08 |
| Q4: Doctors are my most trusted source of health information | 0.875 | ||
| Q7: When I have a health concern, my first step is to contact my doctor’s office | 0.787 | ||
| 7 Cell Phone Expertise (CPE) | Q12: I go online using my cell phone | 0.826 | 4.72 |
| Q13: I use my cell phone to text people almost every day | 0.717 | ||
| 8 Internet Privacy Concerns (IPC) | Q19: When I use the internet, I would be very concerned about giving any personal information | 0.909 | 4.07 |
| Q20: When I use the internet, I would be concerned it would lead to invasions of my privacy | 0.899 |
Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the goodness-of-fit of the factor structure with all of the goodness of fit indices on the favorable threshold (see Fig. 1). The CFI, TLI, IFI, GFI, and RMSEA indices were at the acceptable threshold (CFI = 0.943, TLI = 0.931, IFI = 0.944, GFI = 0.893, RMSEA ≤ 0.06, χ2/df = 1.625, df = 292, P-value ≤ 0.001)