Communicating identity congruence in e-health information seeking: a preliminary investigation

The current study analyzed the perceptions of online health information seekers regarding identity‐congruent information to learn whether identity matching is a factor in motivation and confidence in seeking and using this information if attainable. African Americans and European Americans were recruited to participate in an online survey. Results showed that the degree of identity congruence varied among groups, as did motivation to use sites representing these identities. Both groups established a strong preference for searching for, finding, and using health websites that represented their neighborhood or place‐based identity. The significance of place‐based identity has practical implications for the design of web‐based health information and public health research that examines the impact of neighborhoods on individual health.