Internet Access, Internet Health Information-Seeking Behaviors, and Numeracy

Objectives. Numeracy, also called quantitative literacy, reflects an individual's preference to apply mathematical knowledge to everyday tasks including the use and evaluation of health and medical information. This research examines accessing the internet and engaging in internet health information-seeking behaviors (iHISB) as corollaries of perceptions about communicating health information with numbers.

Methods. Data were drawn from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS, n=6,174). Assessments of internet access and iHISB were combined forming a measure with three levels (not accessing the internet, accessing internet without iHISB, and engaging in iHISB). Measures assessing numeracy included understanding medical statistics (“very hard” [1] to “very easy” [4]) and a preference for outcome probabilities expressed as either words or numbers (both dichotomously coded with “no preference” referent). Linear and logistic models, accommodating the HINTS survey design and adjusting for demographics, were computed.

Results. Respondents not accessing the internet found it more difficult to understand medical statistics (M=2.44) than those in the other two groups (accessing internet, M=2.77; iHISB, M=2.82). Preferences for probabilities expressed as words (Wald χ²[2]=65.42, p<0.0001) and numbers (Wald χ²[2]=49.55, p<0.0001) varied significantly across the three-level internet measure. Most respondents not accessing the internet (45.7% vs. 24.4% accessing and 29.9% iHISB) preferred probabilities expressed in words while those engaging in iHISB preferred numbers (54.3% vs. 18.0% not accessing and 27.7% accessing). Conclusions. The findings illustrate prominent differences in preferences for how outcome probabilities in medical information are expressed as a function of accessing the internet and iHISB.