JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Having a reliable source for health information is critical to build a strong foundation of knowledge, especially with the current revolution of the internet and social media, which raises many concerns of harmful effects on public health. There are no studies of how Saudi population seeks health information. Familiarity with the mostly used and trusted sources of health information among the public will help health authorities and public awareness accounts to disseminate health information accurately.

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate the different sources of health information that are used and trusted by the Saudi population and to assess the impact of these sources on their perception of medical knowledge and health decision-making.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted to meet the objectives. Four hundred and thirteen participants were sampled using the simple random method. Data were collected from both males and females older than 16 years who were attending primary care clinics at King Khalid University Hospital using a self-administered questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and the single proportion test.

Results:

A total of 413 participants were included in this study; 24% of them were males and 49.9% had a bachelor’s degree. Doctors were chosen as the first source of information by 87.6% of the participants and they were completely trusted by most of the population (79.3%). The second most commonly used source was pharmacists (57.7%) and they were partially trusted by 65% of the participants. Internet searches, social media, and traditional medicine were not prioritized by most of the participants as the first nor second source of health information. The majority of the participants did not trust information obtained from social media, and WhatsApp was the most untrusted source by the study participants. Generally, almost half of the respondents (47.7%) acknowledged that various sources of information can often help them understand their health problems. Moreover, the majority of respondents (59.4%) did not doubt a doctor’s information due to the impact of other sources.

Conclusions:

Among the diverse sources, doctors were the most used and trusted source of health information. Although social media was less commonly used as a source of health information, some people, mainly males, trust the provided health information. This provides an insight into the level of accuracy and reliability of health information obtained from several sources by the Saudi population.