Survey shows self-directed health information seeking increases anxiety in older adults, while proxy seeking suggests a potential mitigating effect.
Key Points
Self-directed online health information seeking increases health anxiety in the elderly, mediated by perceived information quality.
Proxy online health information seeking alleviates health anxiety among the elderly, although the mediating role of information quality is not significant.
Female elderly individuals are more affected by health anxiety resulting from self-directed seeking compared to their male counterparts.
Higher education levels correlate with a weaker exacerbation effect from self-directed seeking and a stronger alleviation effect from proxy seeking.