A Meta-Analysis of Factors Related to Health Information Seeking: An Integration from Six Theoretical Frameworks

Prior studies have investigated the antecedents of Health Information Seeking (HIS) using different theoretical frameworks, whereas the inconsistencies in the reported findings warrant a more comprehensive synthesis of this body of knowledge. This meta-analysis identified 12 major antecedents of HIS from six widely used information seeking models examining HIS, developed an organizing framework that segmented current antecedents into cognitive, affective, sociocultural, and information carrier categories, and compared their associations with HIS by meta-analyzing 89 empirical studies (N = 62,957). Results showed that seeking-related subjective norms and information utility yielded the strongest associations with HIS, whereas cognitive and affective factors demonstrated weaker associations with HIS. Illness types, information-seeking channels, and sampling methods significantly moderated the associations between some predictors and HIS. Implications and directions for future research were discussed.