Negative communications with health professionals are a stressor to older adults in healthcare settings. In this situation, older adults seek health information on the Internet as alternative information sources and may consider this as having the equivalent value of communicating with a health professional. This study examines the relationship between communications with health professionals and online health information seeking in older adults. This study used the Health Information National Trends Survey, Cycle 3, and included participants (N = 743) aged 65 or older who used the Internet. A multiple logistic regression was employed to examine the association of health professional communication with online health information seeking. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to examine the association between health communications and three types of online health information seeking in older adults. Online health information seeking was significantly associated with negative communications with health professionals. Health communications only predicted online health information seeking by oneself, and females were more likely to search for health information on the Internet than males. The results of this study show that older adults’ online health information seeking is an active coping strategy to reduce health risks and improve health promotion in healthcare.

与卫生专业人员的负面交流是医疗保健环境中老年人的压力源。在这种情况下，老年人在互联网上寻找健康信息作为替代信息来源，并可能认为这与与健康专业人士交流具有同等价值。本研究调查了与健康专业人员的交流与老年人在线健康信息搜索之间的关系。本研究使用了健康信息全国趋势调查，第 3 周期，包括年龄在 65 岁或以上的使用互联网的参与者 (N = 743)。采用多元逻辑回归来检查卫生专业人员交流与在线健康信息搜索的关联。多项逻辑回归分析用于检查健康传播与老年人在线健康信息搜索的三种类型之间的关联。在线健康信息搜索与与卫生专业人员的负面交流显着相关。健康传播只预测自己在线搜索健康信息，女性比男性更愿意在互联网上搜索健康信息。这项研究的结果表明，老年人的在线健康信息搜索是一种积极的应对策略，可降低健康风险并改善医疗保健中的健康促进。健康传播只预测自己在线搜索健康信息，女性比男性更愿意在互联网上搜索健康信息。这项研究的结果表明，老年人的在线健康信息搜索是一种积极的应对策略，可降低健康风险并改善医疗保健中的健康促进。健康传播只预测自己在线搜索健康信息，女性比男性更愿意在互联网上搜索健康信息。这项研究的结果表明，老年人的在线健康信息搜索是一种积极的应对策略，可降低健康风险并改善医疗保健中的健康促进。