From Global Threat to Personal Health

Predictors of Information Seeking in the Context of Antibiotic Resistance

Abstract

By 2050, ten million people may die every year due to antibiotic resistance, which heightens the importance of individual knowledge regarding this contemporary challenge. When antibiotic resistance is understood as an impersonal risk, it may alter motivational factors underlying knowledge gain through information seeking intentions. Guided by an adapted version of the planned risk information seeking model (PRISM), which considers individuals’ health-related involvement and interest in one`s own health, we conducted a survey (N = 1,584) using an online access panel of the German adults aged 18 and over. While our findings support the applicability of the PRISM in the context of antibiotic resistance, both additional components provide only small additional explanatory contributions. These results suggest that engagement with antibiotic resistance is motivated less by personal concerns and provide further evidence that general health involvement is not automatically translated into intentions to seek information about antibiotic resistance.