Health information-seeking behavior in patients with coronary artery disease: Activating methods

Abstract

Introduction: Coronary artery disease (CAD) has a high mortality rate worldwide, and continuous health behavior practice and careful management are required owing to risks such as rapid changes in symptoms and emergency hospitalization. The utilization of health-related information is an important factor for long-term disease management in patients with CAD. For this purpose, an understanding of health information-seeking behavior is needed first.

Methods: This study analyzed data from the 2021 Korea Medical Panel Survey, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to confirm the factors influencing the health information-seeking behavior of patients with CAD.

Results: The health information-seeking behavior of patients with CAD differed according to demographic characteristics, and differences in preferred information use were confirmed. Finally, it was identified that insufficient levels of health literacy were a major reason for CAD patients not engaging in health information-seeking behaviors (OR, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.09-0.33; p < 0.001).

Conclusion: This study suggests that to improve health information-seeking behaviors, the application of education and intervention programs to increase the level of health literacy is necessary.