Search results

This paper aims to identify consumers' health information consultation patterns by analyzing information sources to better understand consumers' health information needs and behavior in the context of multisource health information.

Haodaifu Online, an online health consultation (OHC) website in China, was used as a research data source, and 20,000 consultation cases were collected from the website with Python. After screening and cleaning, 1,601 consultation cases were included in this study. A content analysis-based mixed-methods research approach was applied to analyze these cases.

The results indicate that with the participation of OHC, there are 15 patterns of consumer health information consultation. Besides OHC, health information sources reported by consumers included medical institutions family/friends and the Internet. Consumers consult on a wide range of health issues including surgical conditions obstetrical and gynecological conditions and other 20 subjects. Consumers have multiple information needs when using OHC: getting prescriptions, diagnosing diseases, making appointments, understanding illnesses, confirming diagnoses and reviewing costs. Through further analysis it was found that consumers’ health information consultation patterns were also significantly different in health issues and health information needs.

This study broadens one’s understanding of consumer health information behavior, which contributes to the field of health information behavior, and also provides insight for OHC stakeholders to improve their services.

This study considers online searching by health information consumers as a learning process. We focus on search sequences, query reformulation, and conceptual changes.

A qualitative user study (30 participants; three health information seeking tasks) investigated mobile searching behavior. Recorded screen activity, questionnaires, and in-depth personal interview data were collected and analyzed.

(1) Search platform sequences of health information consumers in search as a learning process were exacted and their features were highlighted. (2) Query sequence and reformulation pattern of health information consumers were exacted and discussed. (3) The types and degree of conceptual changes of health consumers were reflected by their query reformulation behavior and differ from different health information search tasks. (4) Characteristics of health consumers' search as learning process were revealed.

(1) A novel perspective of consumer health information studies was proposed by exacting search platform sequence, query sequence and linking them with conceptual changes during the search as learning process. (2) Conceptual changes in the searching as a learning process are regarded as a measure of search outcome in this study, in which terms extracted from queries were used to reflect conceptual changes in consumers' mind. (3) Our findings provide evidences that types of health information seeking tasks do have significant influences on the search as a learning process.

The findings of this study can lead to the fit-to-needs of the search platforms, provide advice for information architecture of search list of search platforms, and guide the design of knowledge graph of health information systems.

Potential relationships between information-seeking behavior and conceptual changes in search as a learning process relative to health information were revealed.

Hedonic social applications have been increasingly popular among health information consumers. However, it remains unclear what motivates consumers to adopt health information in hedonic applications when they have alternative choices of more formal health information sources. Building on the self-determination theory and the affordances lens, this study aims to investigate how different affordances on hedonic social applications affect consumers' basic psychological needs and further influence their intention to adopt health information on such applications.

As TikTok demonstrated great potential in disseminating health information, we developed a model that we analyze using the PLS-SEM technique with data collected from a valid research sample of 384 respondents with health information seeking or encountering experience in TikTok.

The results suggested that health information adoption in hedonic social applications is significantly predicted by the satisfaction of consumers' basic psychological needs, namely autonomy, relatedness and competence. Moreover, the satisfaction of basic psychological needs is positively affected by affordances provided by the hedonic social applications. The hedonic affordances positively influence autonomy satisfaction, while the connective affordances positively affect relatedness satisfaction, and the utilitarian affordances positively support competence satisfaction.

The study indicates that hedonic social applications such as TikTok could be an important channel for consumers to access and adopt health information. The study contributes to the literature by proposing a theoretical model that explains consumers' health information adoption and yields practical implications for designers and service providers of hedonic social applications.

To date, health information behaviour (HIB) models have not been applied to an exploration of Wikipedia as a consumer health information resource. Wikipedia has been situated and is well established as a valuable resource for the general layperson wishing to learn more about their health or the health of a loved one. This paper aims to identify an approach to exploring the role of Wikipedia in consumer health information behaviour (CHIB) that is grounded in a conceptual framework from the library and information science (LIS) discipline.

The author draws on current HIB models and relevant theories from existing LIS literature and applies them to propose a new definition of CHIB. The author uses this definition to frame Wikipedia as an unexplored consumer health information resource in the LIS scholarship and suggests future directions for placing such investigations within a conceptual framework from LIS.

The paper finds that Longo's expanded conceptual model of health information-seeking behaviour (ECMHISB) could be valuable and useful for the exploration of CHIB in relation to Wikipedia's health and medical content. Due to Wikipedia's online nature, research framed by these models must acknowledge and take under consideration the digital divide phenomenon and various factors that influence an individual's place within it.

This work builds a foundation upon which future research into the role of Wikipedia's health and medical content in CHIB can be grounded. Using Longo's model, future research might provide insight into who Wikipedia is helping and who it has left behind. LIS scholars, practicing health librarians and perhaps health workers stand to gain a deeper understanding of the potential influence of Wikipedia's health information on its consumers.

For LIS scholars, this paper is novel in the fact that a HIB model has not yet been applied to the study of Wikipedia's health content. This paper provides a foundation for this research.

As digital natives, young adults have been found to consider themselves to have good information literacy skills, when in fact many do not. Past research indicates that not only do young adults rely heavily on information obtained from the web and social networks, but also that they may not be able to judge the authenticity, validity, and reliability of digital information, and may share misinformation among themselves. This can be particularly problematic in the context of health information. Two complementary research studies investigated young adults’ information needs and information seeking in support of their personal well-being, and in comparison to academic and other everyday-life information domains. Results show that young adults consider a range of factors as part of their well-being; these include physical and mental health, spirituality, social connections, and financial stability. They engage in information seeking (active and passive) in support of all of these factors. While they were able to identify information resources as more or less credible, they did not necessarily choose highly credible resources most frequently. Interestingly, they did not use social media sources frequently in the context of health information, choosing to deliberately maintain a degree of privacy with respect to health. While there is evidence of some information literacy skills, there remains a need for further and more extensive information literacy education. This should be addressed by librarians from academic, consumer health, public, and school libraries.

The purpose of this article is to investigate obesity‐related queries from a public health portal (HealthLink) transaction log.

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was applied to each of five obesity‐related focus keywords and their co‐occurring terms in submitted queries. After the transaction log data were collected and cleaned, and query terms were extracted and parsed, relationships between a focus keyword and its co‐occurring terms were established. Clustering relationships between focus keywords and their co‐occurring terms were identified and analysed in the MDS visual context.

The MDS analysis produced satisfactory outcomes for all five focus keywords. The term “placements”, in the visual configurations revealed strong grouping tendencies of three to five clusters for each focus keyword.

The findings of this study provide insights into health consumers' internet‐based information‐seeking behaviour on obesity‐related topics. These findings could be used to enhance online search system design and health‐related thesaurus construction.

This chapter introduces the focus of this volume – the many ways in which libraries and librarians are helping to increase people’s health literacy and reduce health disparities in their communities. The rampant and rapidly increasing health injustices that occur every day throughout the world are, in large part, caused and exacerbated by health information injustice – something which libraries and librarians are playing an instrumental role in addressing by ensuring the physical and intellectual accessibility of information for all. This chapter opens with an introduction to the central concepts of health justice and health information injustice, focusing on the many information-related factors that shape the degree to which individuals have the information they need to be able to have a sufficient and truly equitable chance to live a long and healthy life. Next, the authors present a timely case study to emphasize the importance of health information justice, looking at the dire importance of health literacy as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors then provide a brief glimpse into their 13 contributed chapters, grouped into five categories: (1) Public Libraries/Healthy Communities; (2) Health Information Assessment; (3) Overcoming Barriers to Health Information Access; (4) Serving Disadvantaged Populations; and (5) Health Information as a Communal Asset. In conclusion, the authors discuss their aims for this volume, particularly that readers will become more aware of librarians’ efforts to address health disparities in their communities and excited about participating in and expanding these efforts, moving us closer to health justice.

In this closing chapter, the authors first draw on the contributed chapters in this volume to highlight some of the many ways in which libraries and librarians are moving us closer to health justice by working with their communities to increase consumer health literacy and to decrease health disparities. The authors then focus our attention on the COVID-19 pandemic, discussing the fact that disadvantaged populations are bearing the brunt of the negative impacts of this situation and the many existing and novel roles that libraries and librarians are playing to help to fight consumer health information injustice and to contribute toward better health outcomes for all. Next, Dr Beth Barnett brings her viewpoint as a Board Certified Patient Advocate to the volume, pointing out parallels between the roles of librarians and those of patient advocates, as well as important lessons for patient advocates gleaned from the volume. To conclude the chapter, the authors reiterate our aims for the volume and issue a call to the reader to join libraries and librarians in their important role as agents of health information justice.

This study aims to understand how college students' personal and health-related characteristics are related to their reading behaviors and cognitive outcomes of Facebook health information through eye tracking data and cognitive outcomes.

This study analyzed users' gaze movement data and results of recall and recognition tests to investigate users' reading patterns and their consequences with cognitive outcomes. The gaze movements are analyzed with eye tracking data including the average fixation count and time to first fixation.

The results of reading patterns show that Texts and Images are highly viewed and viewed immediately by participants when the posts were presented. There was no clear pattern with fixation counts to determine cognitive outcomes. However, the findings of study suggest that there is a clear pattern of reading Facebook posts with areas of interest (AOIs). Among five AOIs observed, participants viewed Images first and then Texts when a Facebook post is presented. On the other hand, they read Texts more carefully than Images. The findings of this study suggest that while images contribute to gaining users' attention, a clear and precise message needs to be delivered in text message to ensure readers' correct understanding and application of health information.

The user-centered evidence on reading behaviors and cognitive outcomes will make contributions to how health professionals and health organizations can make optimal use of Facebook for effective health information communication.

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-05-2020-0177