The Integrative Model of E-Health Use

Abstract

This chapter overviews an integrative model of e-health use that connects social disparities at the population level with individual characteristics related to the amount and type of online health information usage, thus providing an account of the ways in which societal disparities play out in individual e-health usage patterns. Based on an overview of the literature on e-health disparities, we suggest that sociallevel disparities are manifested in the form of individual-level differences in health information orientation and health information efficacy, which in turn influence the amount and type of online health use. Exploring the underlying social structures that enable individual-level access, motivation, and ability to utilize the Internet for health and how these structures interact with individual motivation and ability advances our understanding of the Internet, the digital divide, and health disparities.