Exploring the socio-economic determinants of health information-seeking behaviour on the Internet in Turkey

Introduction. The digitisation of health care services has popularised Internet based health information-seeking behaviour. This research investigates the connection between the socio-demographic and economic characteristics of Turkish individuals and their online health information-seeking behaviour.Method. The study method was binary logistic regression on existing social datasets.Analysis. This study considered the dataset obtained from a survey conducted by the Turkish Statistical Institute. The effects of age, sex, education level, working status, location, and frequency of Internet use on the health information-seeking behaviour on the Internet were examined.Results. Health information was sought more frequently by women than men, by people aged 26-35 and 36-45 than by those 25 and below, by people with higher income, and by those with higher levels of education. Health information searches were also conducted more often in developed regions than in less-developed regions. The habit of seeking health information online was also found to be more common among those who use the Internet more frequently.Conclusions. The current paper examined the effects of socio-demographic and economic characteristics of Turkish individuals on their online health information-seeking behaviour and contributes new insights on this behaviour.