Analyzing Trend for U.S. Immigrants’ e-Health Engagement from 2008 to 2013

Our study examines the trend of U.S. immigrants’ engagement in various e-health activities and how immigrants’ use of e-health technologies is associated with their cultural characteristics over years. Aggregating three national representative samples of U.S. immigrants from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) conducted between 2008 and 2013, our results from trend analyses and logistic regressions revealed that the U.S. immigrants exhibited an increasing trend on two types of e-health engagement: tracking personal health information online and communicating with a doctor online. But we did not find any significant change in the other two e-health activities throughout these years: the percentage of immigrants who sought a health provider online remained moderate (about 37%), whereas the percentage of immigrants who joined an online support group kept low (about 5%). Furthermore, immigrants of different race/ethnicity or length of residence in the United States showed different trends of e-health engagement. Asian immigrants and immigrants with 13–34 years of residence were more proactive to engage in various e-health activities. Our study informs the practice aiming to enhance U.S. immigrants’ Internet use for better health-related outcomes.