A Study of Women's Health Information Seeking Behavior (30 to 50 Years) in Kermanshah

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Background: Women play a decisive role in various aspects of family health, therefore their access to and using the documented health information in order to manage the family is very important. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the health information seeking behavior in 30 to 50 years old women of Kermanshah city. Methods: This cross-sectional online survey was conducted with among women aged 30 to 50 years in Kermanshah city, in western Iran. Sample size based on Cochran's formula was determined as 383 people. Participants were invited and recruited through social media. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts consisting of information and communication science specialists, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.783. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and independent t-test in SPSS software version 24. Results: The results showed that the main purpose of participants for health information seeking behavior (HISB) was to know about the type of diseases. Among the health information resources, the most use belonged to Internet resources (website), national media (health channel in TV), people around (family members), social networks (telegram), doctors (specialist doctor) and print sources (books). Health information seeking behaviors were not differ according to demographic variables including marital status, level of education, income level, and area of residence. Conclusions: Heavy use of internet resources, few visits to doctors, and less reading of books are challenging for health information seeking because non-specialized and undocumented information may be used. Officials should provide internet resources and virtual media with rich and documented information in order to develop community health by women.