Nursing

Library science

Health education

Medical advice

Context (archaeology)

Health care

Health Information National Trends Survey

Information seeking behavior

Communication

Biology

Public health

Health literacy

Population health

Health information

Computer science

Health communication

Environmental health

Business

Paleontology

Advertising

Psychology

Political science

Population

Family medicine

Mass media

Health belief model

Medicine

Information seeking

Health promotion

Health Communication

Mass media health communication has enormous potential to drastically alter how health-related information is disseminated and obtained by different populations. However, there is little evidence regarding the influence of media channels on health decision-making and medical advice-seeking behaviors among the Hispanic population. The Pew 2007 Hispanic Healthcare Survey was used to test the hypothesis that the amount of mass media health communication (i.e., quantity of media-based health information received) is more likely to influence Hispanic adults' health decision-making and medical advice-seeking behavior compared to health literacy and language proficiency variables. Results indicated that quantity of media-based health information is positively associated with health decision-making and medical advice-seeking behavior above and beyond the influence of health literacy and English and Spanish language proficiency. In a context where physician–patient dynamics are increasingly shifting from a passive patient role model to a more active patient role model, media-based health information can serve as an influential cue to action, prompting Hispanic individuals to make certain health-related decisions and to seek more health advice and information from a health provider. Study implications are discussed.

The Impact of Mass Media Health Communication on Health Decision-Making and Medical Advice-Seeking Behavior of U.S. Hispanic Population