The More Children Back-feed, the More Parents Avoid:A Study on the Effect of Children’s Digital Back-feeding on Healthinformation Avoidance among the Elderly
Obtaining high-quality health information is recognized as a critical factor for health decision making among older adults. In the localized cultural context, inter-generational support from younger family members plays an important role in the integration of digital health among older adults. The positive efficacy of generational support on older adults’ health beliefs and behaviors is crucial. This study explores the impact of generational back-feeding from the perspective of information avoidance through a questionnaire survey. The results show that perceived generational back-feeding willingness and children’s family status significantly contribute to health information avoidance behavior of older adults. However, increased generational interaction, closer family adaptability, and greater reciprocity demand from older adults effectively mitigate the negative effects and reduce the tendency of health information avoidance. Based on the results of the study, this research provides localized thinking to better understand the health-information avoidance behavior of the elderly in China. It is necessary to adopt older-people-perceived approach, innovate family inter-generational communication strategies and overcome their psychological barriers towards inter-generational healthy support. Additionally, going beyond the realm of family communication, promoting inter-generational integration at the societal level can probably reduce the health information avoidance behavior.