Volkman, Julie E.Luger, Tana M.Harvey, Kimberly L.L.Hogan, Timothy P.Shimada, Stephanie LAmante, Daniel JMcInnes, D. KeithFeng, HuaHouston, Thomas K.2022-08-232022-08-232014-06-062014-12-08BMC Fam Pract. 2014 Jun 6;15:111. doi: 10.1186/1471-2296-15-111. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-15-111" target="_blank">Link to article on publisher's website.</a>1471-229610.1186/1471-2296-15-11124906558https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/39657BACKGROUND: The need to understand preferred sources of health information remains important to providing patient-centered care. The Internet remains a popular resource for health information, but more traditional sources may still be valid for patients during a recent health need. This study sought to understand the characteristics of patients that turn to their doctor or healthcare provider first for a recent health or medical information need. METHODS: Using the national cross-sectional survey, Health Information National Trend Study [HINTS], characteristics of those who sought a doctor or healthcare provider for a recent health information need were compared to other sources. Weighted survey responses from Cycle 1 and Cycle 2 of the HINTS survey were used for multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: A total 5,307 patient responses were analyzed. Overall, those who seek a doctor or healthcare provider first for a health need are female, 46-64 years, White non-Hispanic, educated, in good health and users of the Internet. Yet, adjusted logistic regressions showed that those who sought a doctor or healthcare provider first during a recent health information need compared to other sources were most likely to be 65+ years, in poor health, less educated and have health insurance. CONCLUSIONS: Patients who seek their doctor or healthcare provider first for health information rather than other sources of information represent a unique population. Doctors or healthcare providers remain an important resource for these patients during recent needs, despite the wide use of the Internet as a source of health information.en-US© 2014 Volkman et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0</a>), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.Health information needsSources for health informationDoctor-patient communicationNational cross-sectional surveyBehavior and Behavior MechanismsHealth CommunicationHealth Services ResearchNeoplasmsOncologyJournal Articlehttps://escholarship.umassmed.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3448&amp;context=oapubs&amp;unstamped=1https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/oapubs/24556434694oapubs/2455