Abstract
This study investigates the influence of individual and information characteristics on university students' information channel selection (that is, search engines, social question & answer sites, online health websites, and social networking sites) of online health information (OHI) for three different types of search tasks (factual, exploratory, and personal experience). Quantitative data were collected via an online questionnaire distributed to students on various postgraduate programs at a large UK university. In total, 291 responses were processed for descriptive statistics, Principal Component Analysis, and Poisson regression. Search engines are the most frequently used among the four channels of information discussed in this study. Credibility, ease of use, style, usefulness, and recommendation are the key factors influencing users' judgments of information characteristics (explaining over 62% of the variance). Poisson regression indicated that individuals' channel experience, age, student status, health status, and triangulation (comparing sources) as well as style, credibility, usefulness, and recommendation are substantive predictors for channel selection of OHI.
Highlights
Health information (HI) seeking behavior refers to a series of approaches and actions with which people inquire about health-related topics to assess potential complaints (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007) and develop health-protective behaviors (Mills & Todorova, 2016) with the aim to reduce “the uncertainty regarding [their] health status” (Tardy & Hale, 1998, p. 338)
Users utilize a variety of online means for their health queries, such as search engines, online health websites (OHWs), social networking sites (SNSs), and social question and answer (Q&A) sites (Fox & Duggan, 2013)
Credibility is the most significant information characteristic identified through Principal Component Analysis (PCA), which is consistent with the findings of Johnson et al (2015), Johnson, Sbaffi, and Rowley (2016), and Rowley et al (2015)
Summary
Health information (HI) seeking behavior refers to a series of approaches and actions with which people inquire about health-related topics to assess potential complaints (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007) and develop health-protective behaviors (Mills & Todorova, 2016) with the aim to reduce “the uncertainty regarding [their] health status” (Tardy & Hale, 1998, p. 338). Health information (HI) seeking behavior refers to a series of approaches and actions with which people inquire about health-related topics to assess potential complaints (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007) and develop health-protective behaviors (Mills & Todorova, 2016) with the aim to reduce “the uncertainty regarding [their] health status” Users utilize a variety of online means for their health queries, such as search engines, online health websites (OHWs), social networking sites (SNSs), and social question and answer (Q&A) sites (Fox & Duggan, 2013). A research conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2012 showed that 80% of online health inquiries start from search engines such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo (Fox & Duggan, 2013), which gather information from multiple resources and are found convenient and useful by users (De Choudhury et al, 2014). In the last few years, the way in which people seek HI has been
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
