The Relationship Between Individual Coping and the Need to Have and Seek Health Information Among Older Adults: Exploratory Mixed Methods Study

BACKGROUND: The need to have and seek information shapes the context of computing systems. When it comes to health, individual coping influences human behavior. Therefore, the relationship between individual coping and the need to have and seek health information plays a crucial role in the development of digital health systems. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the relationship between individual coping and the need to have and seek health information among older adults. METHODS: Questionnaires and semistructured interviews investigated the health information need (HIN) and health information–seeking behavior (HISB) in relation to the individual coping strategies of 26 older Germans. RESULTS: The mean age of the interviewed group was 71 years (SD 7). Quantitatively, a trend was found for a negative correlation between the avoidance-oriented coping and HIN (r(s)=−0.37895; bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap 95% BCa CI −0.730 to 0.092; P=.05). The qualitative results supported this finding. For some participants, information and exchange was part of dealing with their health situation, whereas others wanted to learn as little as possible to avoid a decline in their health status. The older adults acquired, collected, and exchanged paper-based health data to augment clinical information sources and support information exchange with professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Individual coping strategies are relevant for the design of digital health systems. They can support older adults in coping with their health situation, although it remains unclear how systems must be designed for people with an avoidance coping strategy to achieve the same acceptance.