CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIORS IN THE LIBRARY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE HEALTH INFORMATION NATIONAL TRENDS SURVEY 2007 (HINTS)

Health information seeking has become increasingly important for people around the nation. Finding well-organized, high quality and well-referenced information is a key to understand diverse health topics. This study investigates demographic characteristics, health information, perceptions of health information seeking, and quality of information associated with characteristics of Americans who chose the library as their primary health information source over the health care providers and the Internet. Data from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) was used and the results reveal that individuals in the library group had better health, always wear a hat, believed some cigarettes are less harmful than others, had more confident getting health information, and less level of trust in doctors, radio, and internet compared with the internet group. On the other hand, Individuals in the library group had better health, believed some cigarettes are less harmful than others, and had less level of trust in doctors compared with the health care providers group. These findings suggest libraries can be a role of providing knowledgeable and understandable health information to the general public. Also, libraries should develop a strategy to increase the level of trust in consumers.