Abstract

Goal: Compared to urban inhabitants, rural individuals may have less access to and usage of certain sources of health information. We looked at how individuals in rural and urban US areas access and utilize different information sources, as well as whether poor health literacy may make rural inequalities in health information usage and access worse. Methods: Six hundred participants—50% of whom were from rural areas—completed an online survey about their usage and access to 25 different sources of health information. In order to determine if rurality interacted with health literacy to predict access and use, we used logistic regression models to investigate relationships between rurality and access to and use of health information sources. Results: Rural inhabitants used search engines less often and had less access to health information from blogs, periodicals, specialty physicians, primary care physicians, and other sources than their urban counterparts. The only difference between rural and urban populations' access to specialized physicians was when sociodemographics was taken into consideration. Compared to rural inhabitants with appropriate health literacy and urban residents regardless of health literacy level, rural residents with poor health literacy had less access to the media and scientific literature but more use of corporations/companies.

Description