Hopelab & Well Being Trust 47
Online Health Information Searches Among Young People
With Depression
As seen earlier in this report, the majority of teens and young adults –
87% – report having gone online for health information, including
a large proportion that say they have searched online for information
about mental well-being, including stress (44%), anxiety (42%), and
depression (39%). This survey also finds that young people who are
experiencing depressive symptoms are more likely than those who
exhibit no symptoms to report turning to online resources for informa-
tion about mental well-being. The highest reported rates of online
health-seeking are among those with moderate to severe levels of
depressive symptoms. All told, nine out of ten (90%) teens and young
adults with moderate to severe depressive symptoms say they have
gone online to look for information on mental health issues. Nearly
two-thirds (64%) of TYAs with moderate to severe depressive symptoms
report having turned to the internet for help with depression specifically.
The majority (88%) of those with moderate to severe depressive
symptoms who reported going online for information on any health topic
say the information they found during their most recent search was
helpful (24% say "very" helpful, and 64% say "somewhat"). However, this
is a slightly lower rate than among youth with no depressive symptoms,
among whom 96% found the information very (34%) or somewhat
(61%) helpful.
None Mild
Moderate
to severe
Any health topic
Depression
Any mental
health topic
Depression,
stress, or anxiety
78%ª
22%ª
48%ª
42%ª
96%
b
51%
b
81%
b
71%
b
98%
b
64%
b
90%
b
82%
b
Table 6: Reported online health information
searches, by degree of depressive symptoms
Percent of 14- to 22-year-olds who say they have
gone online for information on:
Source: Hopelab/Well Being Trust Teens and Young Adults Survey,
February-March 2018. N=1,337 young people ages 14-22.
Note: Superscripts are used to denote statistical significance
across rows at p<.05. Items with no superscripts, and items that
share a common superscript, are not significantly different.
Digital Health Practices
Digital Health Use and Depression
Depressive symptoms
