JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Online information seeking by patients on medical topics can have beneficial effects on deciding on treatment options and fostering better relationships with doctors. The quality of websites and processes of seeking information online have mainly been studied, with a focus on the accuracy and reliability of websites; however, few studies have examined the relationship between other aspects of quality and the processes of seeking medical information online.

Objective:

This exploratory study aimed to shed light on the quality of websites from the viewpoint of understanding in combination with seeking medical information online.

Methods:

The study participants were 15 Japanese university students with no difficulties utilizing the Internet. A questionnaire survey regarding health literacy (47 items on 4-point Likert scale) and information navigation skills on the Internet (8 items on 5-point Likert scale) was conducted before engaging in online information seeking and qualitative interviews. The students searched for information on a disease and its treatment. The websites viewed were gathered from search behavior recorded by software and browser logs. Follow-up interviews were conducted to elicit explanations from the participants regarding the assignments and their perception of information seeking online. The explanations were evaluated by 55 healthcare professionals (3-point Likert scale) and then analyzed qualitatively.

Results:

The mean age of the participants was 20.6 years (median 21, SD 1.06). The means, medians, and ranges of the sum of their health literacy and information navigation skills were 115.1, 115, and 80–166, and 25.9, 26, and 17–36, respectively. All participants were able to access reliable websites with information relevant for the assignments. The mean ratings of the students’ explanations were 108.6 (median 109; range 83–134) for the disease and 105.6 (median 104; range 87–117) for its treatment. The intraclass correlation coefficients (3,k) were 0.84 (95%CI: 0.77 to 0.90) and 0.95 (95%CI: 0.93 to 0.97), indicating “good” and “excellent”, respectively. Health literacy and information navigation skills were moderately correlated (r=0.54, 95%CI: 0.033 to 0.822, P=.04). Among the four stages of health literacy, understanding and appraising were moderately correlated with information navigation skills (r=0.53, 95%CI: 0.025 to 0.820, P=.04; r=0.52, 95%CI: 0.013 to 0.816, P=.046). Qualitative analysis of the participants’ perceptions on information seeking online revealed that they had no difficulties operating and browsing the Internet and considered medical and public institution websites to be reliable; however due to unfamiliarity with medical terms, they had difficulties choosing a site from the results obtained and comparing information provided by different sites; they also looked for sites providing orderly information in plain language.

Conclusions:

This qualitative study revealed interactions between searching the Internet for and understanding medical information by analyzing the processes of information seeking online and the perceptions of the participants.