Reliance on the Internet for health information predicts high HIV risk

Background: Community and university partners guide a biennial countywide survey project using community-based research principles. Partners are also collaborating in on-line healthy sexuality education, and thus are interested in the role of the Internet as a source of health information for those at high risk for HIV.

Methods: Adults in each residential Census Tract participated in a 2009 telephone survey, responding to the items "Where do you get information about health issues?" and "Which one do you rely on the most?" Physicians and the Internet were the two most frequent responses. Logistic regressions predicted whether participants relied on Physicians or the Internet the most for health information (N = 1113), entering demographics in the initial step and high HIV risk in the second step if it significantly predicted additional variance. We conducted regressions for both subjective and behaviorally based HIV risk measures from national health surveys.

Results: Controlling for age, race/ethnicity, gender, and educational attainment, both those who self-identified as being at high risk for HIV and those classified as being at high risk for HIV through behavioral measures were more likely to rely on the Internet for health information. Those who relied on the Internet were nearly three times as likely (11%) to be at high risk for HIV compared to those who relied on physicians (4%), as assessed by behavioral measures.

Conclusions: The results of this study imply that Internet based healthy sexuality campaigns are necessary to reach those at high risk of contracting HIV.