Availability Of Online Health Information Research Articles

Online and offline health information seeking and the demand for physician services.

We examine the relationship between Internet-based health information seeking and the demand for physician services, using data collected from the 28 European Union states in 2014. Unlike previous research, our analysis distinguishes seekers of health information into those who use only non-Internet sources and those who use the Internet and possibly non-Internet sources. By comparing the frequencies of physician visits among the two groups of health information seekers and non-seekers, we infer the net association between online health information and the demand for physician services while partially controlling for the effects of concurrent seeking of offline health information. The following are the two key findings: (1) individuals’ health status and sociodemographic factors shape online and offline health information seeking patterns in similar ways; and (2) the demand for physician services is positively associated with offline health information seeking and not with online health information. The net association with online health information would be even smaller after controlling for the effect of concurrent offline health information seeking. These results suggest that extending the availability of online health information would potentially reinforce the unequal access to health information, which could create greater variation in individuals’ health management skills and benefits from health care in the long term. However, it would be associated with little or no increase in the demand for physician services, unlike the implications of previous research.

Concept, Prospects and Challenges of Internet Pharmacy to Practice of Pharmaceutical Care: A Review

Internet pharmacy has been the focus of heightened interest over the past 10 years. The unfolding and increasing trend and availability of online health information and drug sourcing are becoming of palpable concerns as the internet is known to be characteristically porous in terms of legislature and regulatory control. This prevalence and pattern of use of the internet in this regard alongside knowledge and attitude of users are examined. The readiness of regulatory bodies and operational legislations in some countries to checkmate illegal and uncontrolled ethical drug sourcing is similarly highlighted. The advantages of online drug sourcing that may increasingly fuel the internet market are considered. Finally, necessary upgrade of existing physical drug outlets to tackle possible spurious and illegal virtual pharmacies and strategies to practice of pharmaceutical care based on online ideologies are also reviewed.

Intolerance of Uncertainty Moderates the Relation Between the Choice to Access Health Information and Post-Choice Distress Among Individuals Prone to Health Anxiety.

Access to health information has steeply grown, mainly through the availability of online health information. Associated with a number of potential benefits, accessing health information can be non-adaptive and particularly for individuals prone to health anxiety. For those individuals, accessing health information often serves as reassurance seeking to assuage health concerns. However, accessing health information can prompt distress for individuals prone to health anxiety. The present study sought to further understand when accessing health information prompts distress by examining the moderating role of intolerance of uncertainty (IU). Individuals prone to health anxiety (N = 98), as indicated by an elevated score on a self-report measure rather than through formal assessment of meeting criteria for disorders marked by elevated health anxiety (e.g., illness anxiety disorder), participated in a lab-based session where they viewed a provocation of health concerns and were given the choice to either access or avoid further health information. As predicted, participants with high, but not low, IU reported significantly greater distress when they chose to access versus avoid health information. Study results further highlight IU as potentially important for understanding when accessing health information relates to greater negative emotionality. Future directions are discussed.

Online health information\u2013seeking behavior by endocrinology patients

PurposeGiven that the Internet is important for health-related information (HRI) and the fact that online health information (OHI)–seeking behavior has never been studied in endocrinology, we set out to examine how and why the Internet is utilized for HRI, the frequency of such activity, its impact, future information needs, and the effect of language.MethodsA mainly quantitative, embedded mixed-methods study was performed, employing a questionnaire survey. We included 312 patients (78.4% response rate).ResultsOHI-seeking was reported by 175 patients (56.1%), especially in younger (p = 0.037) and more educated (p = 0.006) patients. OHI-seekers perceived OHI to be high-quality (135, 77.1%) but 104 (59.4%) were unaware of website certification tools. Among OHI-seekers, 63 (36.6%) reported positive behavioral changes after seeking OHI. Only 45 (25.7%) OHI-seekers discussed their gathered information with their endocrinologist. If an interactive e-learning module was available, 194/312 (62.2%) patients expressed willingness to use it, especially those reporting a need for more HRI (p = 0.024). Native speakers were more likely to report that OHI did not meet their information needs (p < 0.001).ConclusionsOHI-seeking by patients attending the endocrinology outpatients is widely practiced. The availability of OHI in the native language and e-learning modules may enhance the utility of the Internet for health information.

Exploring the Information Architecture of Online Peripheral Artery Disease Forums: A Qualitative Characterization of eHealth Content, Perceptions, and Unmet Needs of Patients and Families

The availability of online health information has grown over the last decade. Although patients and families frequently use eHealth resources to get information about diagnosis and treatment, the content of these resources has not been characterized. We performed a qualitative analysis of posts and responses from an online peripheral artery disease (PAD) forum to characterize the participants and information exchanged.

The impact of recommendations and warnings on the quality evaluation of health websites: An online experiment

With the increase in availability of online health information (OHI), consumers need to be able to properly evaluate the quality of health websites. Although several established evaluation criteria for OHI are available, these are rarely used by consumers. To improve people's ability and motivation to critically evaluate OHI, insights into how these criteria can optimally be communicated are needed. This study aims to investigate whether educational messages recommending the use of quality criteria can improve consumers' ability to evaluate OHI credibility, especially among people with low health literacy. We also test whether these messages can yield a stronger effect when combined with information warning consumers against using non-established criteria. In an online experiment, we randomly assigned 403 participants to one of four conditions and asked them to evaluate two websites of different quality. The conditions consisted of recommendations promoting the use of established evaluation criteria, warnings against using commonly adopted non-established criteria, a combination of the two, and a control group. Participants exposed to messages recommending established criteria evaluated the credibility of the lower quality website as poorer, and were better able to discriminate between high and low quality information compared to those in the control group. A combination of recommendations and warnings also improved people's ability to evaluate, but did not yield a stronger effect than the recommendations alone. Subgroup analysis, however, showed that these effects existed only for those with high health literacy. We conclude that providing consumers with criteria to evaluate OHI might be a viable way to improve people's evaluation skills of online health materials. Further research is needed to identify efficient ways to communicate these criteria to low health literate audiences.

The Association Between Online Health Information-Seeking Behaviors and Health Behaviors Among Hispanics in New York City: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

BackgroundHispanics are the fastest-growing minority group in the United States and they suffer from a disproportionate burden of chronic diseases. Studies have shown that online health information has the potential to affect health behaviors and influence management of chronic disease for a significant proportion of the population, but little research has focused on Hispanics.ObjectiveThe specific aim of this descriptive, cross-sectional study was to examine the association between online health information–seeking behaviors and health behaviors (physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, alcohol use, and hypertension medication adherence) among Hispanics.MethodsData were collected from a convenience sample (N=2680) of Hispanics living in northern Manhattan by bilingual community health workers in a face-to-face interview and analyzed using linear and ordinal logistic regression. Variable selection and statistical analyses were guided by the Integrative Model of eHealth Use.ResultsOnly 7.38% (198/2680) of the sample reported online health information–seeking behaviors. Levels of moderate physical activity and fruit, vegetable, and alcohol consumption were low. Among individuals taking hypertension medication (n=825), adherence was reported as high by approximately one-third (30.9%, 255/825) of the sample. Controlling for demographic, situational, and literacy variables, online health information–seeking behaviors were significantly associated with fruit (β=0.35, 95% CI 0.08-0.62, P=.01) and vegetable (β=0.36, 95% CI 0.06-0.65, P=.02) consumption and physical activity (β=3.73, 95% CI 1.99-5.46, P<.001), but not alcohol consumption or hypertension medication adherence. In the regression models, literacy factors, which were used as control variables, were associated with 3 health behaviors: social networking site membership (used to measure one dimension of computer literacy) was associated with fruit consumption (β=0.23, 95% CI 0.05-0.42, P=.02), health literacy was associated with alcohol consumption (β=0.44, 95% CI 0.24-0.63, P<.001), and hypertension medication adherence (β=–0.32, 95% CI –0.62 to –0.03, P=.03). Models explained only a small amount of the variance in health behaviors.ConclusionsGiven the promising, although modest, associations between online health information–seeking behaviors and some health behaviors, efforts are needed to improve Hispanics’ ability to access and understand health information and to enhance the availability of online health information that is suitable in terms of language, readability level, and cultural relevance.

"It's got to be on this page": age and cognitive style in a study of online health information seeking.

BackgroundThe extensive availability of online health information offers the public opportunities to become independently informed about their care, but what affects the successful retrieval and understanding of accurate and detailed information? We have limited knowledge about the ways individuals use the Internet and the personal characteristics that affect online health literacy.ObjectiveThis study examined the extent to which age and cognitive style predicted success in searching for online health information, controlling for differences in education, daily Internet use, and general health literacy.MethodsThe Online Health Study (OHS) was conducted at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Stanford University School of Medicine from April 2009 to June 2010. The OHS was designed to explore the factors associated with success in obtaining health information across different age groups. A total of 346 men and women aged 35 years and older of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds participated in the study. Participants were evaluated for success in searching online for answers to health-related tasks/questions on nutrition, cancer, alternative medicine, vaccinations, medical equipment, and genetic testing.ResultsCognitive style, in terms of context sensitivity, was associated with less success in obtaining online health information, with tasks involving visual judgment most affected. In addition, better health literacy was positively associated with overall success in online health seeking, specifically for tasks requiring prior health knowledge. The oldest searchers were disadvantaged even after controlling for education, Internet use, general health literacy, and cognitive style, especially when spatial tasks such as mapping were involved.ConclusionsThe increasing availability of online health information provides opportunities to improve patient education and knowledge, but effective use of these resources depends on online health literacy. Greater support for those who are in the oldest cohorts and for design of interfaces that support users with different cognitive styles may be required in an age of shared medical decision making.

Searching for Health: The Topography of the First Page

In this study we have examined the topography of webpages that users gain access to through Google keyword searches, for five major health conditions. Implications of our findings will be discussed in light of late modern information seeking practices, which serve not only to keep users informed, but to mediate their personal identities.Pour cette étude, nous avons examiné la topographie de pages Web auxquelles accèdent les utilisateurs qui ont recherché dans Google de l'information sur cinq troubles de la santé graves. Nous discuterons de l'implication des données recueillies dans l'optique des récentes pratiques modernes de recherche documentaire qui servent non seulement à informer les utilisateurs, mais également à témoigner de leur identité personnelle. 

The Changing Nature of Health Information Dissemination through the Role of Social Media

Traditional forms of health information dissemination have previously involved a few key organizations originating health-related information and disseminating this to clinicians and the community. This information was typically disseminated via private, formalized and non-digital interactions between health information sources (HIS) and clinicians and consumers. With the introduction of the Internet, Web-based health information dissemination led to some changes with greater availability of online health information. However the recent adoption and uptake of social media has led to many more parties, both organizations of varying types, and individuals, participating in public health information dissemination; and this has also led to new forms of sharing health-related information, particularly involving a greater role for individuals. In this paper we introduce empirical findings in relation to how organizations and individuals are now using social media for sharing health information, and from this suggest themes to describe the changes from traditional to contemporary health information dissemination, as well as the new emerging roles and forms of interaction for health information dissemination.

Searching for health: the topography of the first page

Members of the lay public are turning increasingly to the internet to answer health-related questions. Some authors suggest that the widespread availability of online health information has dislodged medical knowledge from its traditional institutional base and enabled a growing role for alternative or previously unrecognized health perspectives and `lay health expertise'. Others have argued, however, that the organization of information retrieved from influential search engines, particularly Google, has merely intensified mainstream perspectives because of the growing consolidation of the internet with traditional, commercial media sources. In this paper we describe an analysis of `first page' results retrieved through Google searches about several common health concerns, each of which has been the subject of controversy as a result of uncertain aetiology, diagnoses, outcomes and/or contested approaches to treatment. Our findings suggest that the online search tactics used by most lay health information seekers produce sources of information that, for the most part, reflect mainstream biomedical discourses, often linked to commercial interests, rather than a plurality of voices that offer a variety of perspectives and resources. We discuss the implications for health-interested internet searchers who fail to look beyond the `first page'.

Weight Management

The incidence of obesity has soared in recent years, as has the availability of online health information targeting this problem. This article identifies reliable Internet resources for health information about weight management for the overweight and obese. These sources have been evaluated as being useful for both consumers and health care professionals. The reviewed Web sites fall into three categories: federal government Web sites, non-profit organization Web sites, and commercial Web sites.