Abstract: [Purpose/Significance] In recent years, there has been a lot of research on the demand for health information, but the research on health information services for the elderly is slightly insufficient. In early 2022, China officially entered the aging society. In addition, people's attention to major public health emergencies brought about by the COVID-19 epidemic triggered the author's thinking about the demand for health information for the elderly under such circumstances. This paper aims to explore the health information needs of the elderly under major public health emergencies, enrich the theoretical content of health information needs and services for the elderly, and provide reference for health information services for the elderly. [Method/Process] In-depth interview was used to collect data from 30 elderly people. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interview text, code the interview text, and summarize sub-themes. [Results/Conclusions] The results show that the health information needs of the elderly under major public health emergencies can be divided into four categories: disease prevention, disease diagnosis and treatment, health care, mental health and social life. In order to meet their health information needs, this paper proposes information service strategies from the perspective of the government, community and media: 1) the government ensures that information channels are unblocked, and makes full use of scientific and technological means to transmit information. In the Internet era, considering that most elderly people are also active on the We Media and social media platforms, government departments are suggested to make full use of scientific and technological means to update the latest news to the public in a timely manner, such as using emerging social media, We Media (such as Weibo, WeChat official account, Tiktok, etc.) to cooperate with official news agencies, and build smooth information transmission channels with the help of scientific and technological platforms, and expand the scope of information dissemination; 2) to enrich grassroots information dissemination channels by taking community as a unit, in addition to regularly issuing relevant notices and information in the community, we can also carry out targeted publicity lectures, free health clinics and other activities under the professional guidance of relevant institutions to help the elderly obtain health information; 3) to standardize the release of media information and improve the social responsibility of the media industry. This study mainly focuses on the elderly who can take care of themselves. The research object comes from the same community. In the future, more attention may be paid to the semi-disabled and completely disabled elderly, and diversified groups in different environments and regions will be considered.

Key words: public health emergency, the elderly, health information needs, information service