Effective factors influencing individual’s shared health decision making

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of information avoidance, information overload, health literacy on individuals’ shared health decision making. A research model is proposed based on sound theoretical background. Data from 155 respondents was collected via an online survey. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to analyse the data. The findings suggest that information overload and information avoidance both exhibit negative effects on an individual’s shared health decision making behaviour, while health literary possess positive effects. We also find that information avoidance has a positive impact on information avoidance. Moreover, health literacy is negatively related to both information overload and information avoidance. The paper enhances both theoretical and empirical understanding of the effects of individuals’ health literacy, information overload and information avoidance on their shared health decision making behaviour. The results indicate that sufficient health literacy enables individuals to engage in their health decision making process and sharing their concerns with their physicians. However, information overload and information avoidance trigger negative effects which lead to individuals less involved in shared health decision making. Our results advocate more efforts to improve individual health literary as the means to mitigate the negative effects of information overload and information avoidance towards shared health decision making.