WHO LEARNS PREVENTIVE HEALTH-CARE INFORMATION FROM WHERE - CROSS-CHANNEL AND REPERTOIRE COMPARISONS

We studied from which information channels individuals reported learni ng the most information about preventive health care, how those channe ls correlated with one another, and how well they were predicted by de mographics and health orientations. A probability sample of 1,963 adul ts from 8 midwestern communities were interviewed from late 1994 to ea rly 1995. Respondents reported learning different amounts of preventiv e health information from different channels, and a mix in levels of l earning was found across channels. Television news and information rat ed unexpectedly high across the population studied. An exploratory fac tor analysis indicated a clear grouping or repertoire consisting of te levision channels, and for magazines and newspapers, but also a distin ct personal media repertoire involving a mix of health professionals, family and friends, books, educational materials, and computers. Demog raphics did better at predicting learning from traditional print media , but personal health orientations were more effective predictors of p ersonal media; television was less well predicted by either.