Relationship Between Internet Use and Change in Health Status: Panel Study of Young Adults

BACKGROUND: Using the internet for health information is a widespread phenomenon documented in considerable scholarship. Less common, however, is the analysis of panel data to examine how internet use may relate to change in health status over time. OBJECTIVE: This study examines whether internet use and internet use related to health are associated with a change in health status among young adults. METHODS: We used a unique panel survey data set collected about young adults’ internet use in 2012 and 2016 (n=384). We applied logistic regression to examine the relationships between sociodemographics, internet experiences, frequency of health-related internet use, and sharing health content online with change in health status over time. We additionally examined the variables characterizing sharing health content online (via Facebook, Twitter, and email) in separate models. RESULTS: In the second wave, over half (236/384, 61.5%) of the sample used the internet for health at least weekly. Approximately one-third (141/384, 36.7%) used Facebook for health-content sharing, while using Twitter and email for sharing health content were far less frequent (14/384, 3.6%, and 55/384, 14.3%, respectively). A change in health status occurred for 43.0% (165/384) of the sample; 18.5% (71/384) reported an improvement while 24.5% (94/384) reported a decline. Greater frequency of internet use was associated with health decline over time (B=–0.58, P=.02). We also found that frequent health-related internet use was related to enhanced health or maintained health (B=0.58, P=.03). Sharing health content on social media or email, however, was not related to young adults’ health changes. CONCLUSIONS: Young adults exhibit a pattern of using the internet for health that influences their health status. Our finding that frequent health-related internet use may promote improved or maintained health suggests that this type of online activity might also support healthy living.