ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1492472
The mediating role of health awareness in the relationship between health information behavior and health outcomes among the elderly
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Creativity and Design, Guangzhou Huashang College, Guangzhou, China
- 2Faculty of Innovation and Design, City University of Macau, Taipa, Macao, Macao, SAR China
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With the acceleration of global aging, elderly individuals face numerous challenges in acquiring, understanding, and applying health information. Enhancing health awareness plays a crucial role in their health management behaviors. This study explores the impact of acquiring, understanding, and applying health information on the health awareness and health outcomes of the elderly, with a particular focus on the mediating role of health awareness in this process. Based on the Health Belief Model (HBM), the theoretical framework of this study hypothesizes that the acquisition, understanding, and application of health information can significantly enhance the health awareness of the elderly, which in turn indirectly affects their health outcomes. To test these hypotheses, a specific questionnaire was developed, and empirical analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicate that the application of health information has the most significant positive impact on improving the health awareness of the elderly, followed by the acquisition of health information, while the understanding of health information has a relatively smaller effect on health awareness. Health awareness not only directly influences the health outcomes of the elderly but also plays a crucial mediating role between health information behavior and health outcomes. The study suggests that although the acquisition and understanding of health information are essential, the actual application of this information is particularly critical for improving health outcomes among the elderly. This provides empirical support for public health policymakers, recommending a focus on the application and practice of health information in elderly health management, with an emphasis on promoting digital health platforms and community health education to enhance health awareness among the elderly.
Keywords: Health awareness, health information behavior, Health of the elderly, structural equation model, health belief model
Received: 09 Sep 2024; Accepted: 04 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hong, Shi and Xing. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: LI Hong, School of Creativity and Design, Guangzhou Huashang College, Guangzhou, China
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