Abstract
Background: The Internet is being increasingly used in our lives. Along with Internet use, social media sites are especially popular and are used by many people on a daily basis. Many studies were conducted to see the people’s perception and their attitude towards the use of the Internet for health information. Such studies were also carried out in Saudi Arabia, but most have been limited to a specific target sample of the population. Our study aimed to assess the perception towards and use of different platforms and search engines to seek health information in Saudi Arabia.Method: A cross‐sectional study was conducted in Saudi Arabia during the year 2021. An Arabic online questionnaire using Google forms was sent to a randomized sample. Microsoft Excel 2016 was used for data entry, and statistical analysis was performed using IBM© SPSS© Statistics version 25 (IBM© Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).Result: Among the 1363 participants, 56.2% were females and 43.8% were males with a mean age of 30.73 ± 12.3. The majority were living in Western region. The most used social media platforms were WhatsApp (91.5%), YouTube (84.6%), and Twitter (82.6%), respectively. The most common medical websites browsed were the Saudi Ministry of Health (67%) and the Food and Drug Administration (54.4%). Some 40.1% of the participants had a medical consultation online from a doctor, and most of them (67.8%) trusted the online physician. Finally, most of the participants (90.9%) thought that health information on the Internet or social media contributes to raising the level of health awareness among the general population. There was a significant relationship between educational level and gender and online health-seeking behavior (p > 0.05).Conclusion: The study reinforced that health information that is sought from the Internet and social media platforms has a great impact on the population, emphasizing the need for credible information sources and how to access them.
Highlights
The Internet is being increasingly used in our lives; it is a global network that enables us to obtain different types of information, from topics such as education and entertainment [1,2]
The study reinforced that health information that is sought from the Internet and social media platforms has a great impact on the population, emphasizing the need for credible information sources and how to access them
An earlier study found that 47% of the South Asian population in Canada seek the Internet for obtaining health information [6]
Summary
The Internet is being increasingly used in our lives; it is a global network that enables us to obtain different types of information, from topics such as education and entertainment [1,2]. An earlier study found that 47% of the South Asian population in Canada seek the Internet for obtaining health information [6]. With an increasing variety of sources for health information, people tend to look for what concerns them online due to ease of access [9] They may prefer online consultations from doctors they have never met to make an appointment at a clinic and visiting their physician [10]. Many studies were conducted to see the people’s perception and their attitude towards the use of the Internet for health information Such studies were carried out in Saudi Arabia, but most have been limited to a specific target sample of the population.
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