As a culturally diverse country, the U.S. hosts over 39 million immigrants who may experience various cultural and linguistic obstacles to receiving quality health care. Considering online sources an important alternative for immigrants to access health information, this study investigates how Chinese immigrants in the U.S. seek health information online. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Chinese immigrants who currently live in the U.S. to understand how acculturation strategies they use to adapt to the host society influence their Internet-based health information seeking behaviors. Our findings revealed that the language and web sources immigrants choose to use can be predicted by the acculturation strategies they utilize to cope with the new culture. This study serves as a timely and imperative call for further consideration of the role that acculturation plays in determining how immigrants seek health information and utilize the healthcare services of their host society. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Chinese immigrants Online health information seeking Web source choice Language choice Acculturation

Information Seeking Behavior information seeking China consumer health information human middle aged Adaptation, Psychological Internet language procedures Cross-Sectional Studies United States Young Adult cross-sectional study migrant psychology Humans Asian Americans male Emigrants and Immigrants Acculturation Asian American female adaptive behavior cultural factor adult health literacy