Understanding the factors influencing health information avoidance: A perspective from the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model

Abstract

Information avoidance is a complex phenomenon that is influenced by several factors, including individual, social, psychological, and environmental factors. Individuals deliberately avoid information that they perceive as threatening or overwhelming which can pose a serious health risk. Understanding the factors that influence information avoidance is essential for designing effective health communication strategies and interventions. Thus, the study is conducted with an aim to measure and validate “the risk information seeking and processing (RISP)” framework and determining the factors influencing the health information avoidance (HIA) among general health consumers. Drawing on the information seeking and processing (RISP) framework, a six-factor measurement model was proposed to understand the factors causing the HIA. The model was tested using the structural equation modeling (SEM) with data collected from 1600 general health consumers through a cross-sectional survey. The findings showed that both negative affective risk responses (β = 0.382) and information overload (β = 0.118) positively influenced channel beliefs. Subsequently, channel beliefs (β = 0.079) positively influenced HIA. However, information overload (β = 0. 029) and information norms (β = 0.039) showed a positive but statistically non-significant influence on HIA. The study concludes that negative affective risk responses, information overload and channel beliefs are the key factors that influence HIA among health consumers. However, factors like risk perception, informational norms, and information insufficiency did not significantly influence HIA. Our study contributes to the validation and applicability of the RISP framework to the information behavior domain, especially in the context of HIA.