Abstract
Under the background of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), online health information seeking has become one of the most important information needs of the public and even the only channel for health information seeking in this special period. A review of the research on online health information-seeking behavior will help give full play to the previous academic research, further emphasize the necessity of online health information-seeking research, and promote the development of research in this field. This study firstly presents the research overview of online health information-seeking behavior by using the informetric method. Secondly, an overview is carried out from the perspective of online health information platforms, groups, quality, satisfaction, etc., to explore the influencing factors and their relationships in the process of online health information seeking. On this basis, the existing behavioral models are integrated and sorted out to build a new behavioral theoretical model in line with the current online health information seeking.
Highlights
Health information is generally defined as information about people’s physical and mental health, illness, nutrition, and wellness
From the viewpoint of the number of national publications, European and American countries are fruitful in the field of online health informationseeking behavior research
In this review of research on online health information-seeking behavior, we have identified a number of researchers who have conducted relevant research from different perspectives and in different ways, and the articles listed in this paper are among the most widely cited and representative
Summary
Health information is generally defined as information about people’s physical and mental health, illness, nutrition, and wellness. At the beginning of 2020, a sudden outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic broke out in Wuhan and spread rapidly worldwide. Such a sudden and highly contagious global health event sent the public into a panic. In its “Epidemic Watch” report, Ariadne further pointed out that people’s active information acquisition channels during the epidemic were mainly distributed on online social media platforms, comprehensive information platforms, professional news and information platforms, short video platforms, and web browsers (IResearch, 2020). The sudden outbreak events have raised the importance of health information to the public and highlighted that online information platforms had become the main channel for seeking health information nowadays. It is undeniable that while online platforms bring richer information, they are full of distorted information and misinformation, especially excessive information that cannot be distinguished from the truth, which makes it difficult for people to find trustworthy information sources and even affects users’ health information behavior and health decisions
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