Abstract
The purpose of this review is to briefly examine published articles regarding patients’ access to health information in China. The searching was performed on the PubMed using MeSH words such as “consumer health information, health literacy, health education and drug information service”. After preliminary screen, the contents were categorized as present situation, obstacles and future perspectives. In conclusion, patients now rely more on alternative access to health information to complement doctor consultation. Traditional alternative sources suffer low timeliness, credibility and efficiency. Though the current boom of online health information is promising, low quality of information, unequal access and poor design features have become obstacles for further development. In the future, Chinese authority and professional institutions will support the construction of search websites able to provide authentic health information. Training programs of health literacy will be employed universally, and pharmacist counselling will be well received.
Highlights
Chinese patients have long been suffering from a lack of authentic health information [1]
The searching was performed on the PubMed using MeSH words such as “consumer health information, health literacy, health education and drug information service”
Any articles or conference reports that contain either qualitative information or quantitative data on current situation, obstacles or future perspectives of access to health information in China were selected as potential source of reference
Summary
Chinese patients have long been suffering from a lack of authentic health information [1]. It later turned out that the treatment had been questioned by Stanford due to its ineffectiveness and infeasibility, and was abandoned in the U.S As a result of the deceptive information, Wei’s family had hoped in vain in spite of the considerable sum they had spent on the treatment. It wasn’t the first time that the inaccurate, incomplete or even deceptive health information had hurt people. A brief review will be given about patients’ access to health information in China, in the hope of outlining the current situation, identifying the obstacles to reform and predicting future developments
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