JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Online sources of health information are widely used by parents to support healthy parenting and aid in decision-making about their infants’ health. While fraught with challenges such as misinformation, if used appropriately online resources can improve access to health education and promote healthy choices. How Indigenous mothers use online information to support their parenting and infants’ health has not yet been investigated; however, online modalities may be an important way to mitigate the reduced access to health care and negative health care interactions that many Indigenous people are known to experience.

Objective:

To understand how Indigenous mothers experience using online information to support the health of their infants.

Methods:

This interpretive description, qualitative study used semi-structured interviews and a discussion group to understand how Indigenous mothers living in Hamilton, Ontario and caring for an infant less than two years of age experienced meeting the health needs of their infants. The data presented reflects their experiences of using online sources of health information to support their infants’ health. The Two-Eyed Seeing approach was applied to the study design, which ensured both Western and Indigenous worldviews were considered throughout.

Results:

A total of 19 Indigenous mothers participated in the study. The resulting four themes included: distrusting information, staying anonymous, using visual information to support decision-making and accessing a world of experiences. While fewer Indigenous mothers used online sources of information than found in the general population in other studies, tailoring online modalities to meet the unique needs of Indigenous mothers is an important opportunity to support the health and wellness of both mothers and infants.

Conclusions:

Online information sources are most commonly used amongst parents and ever-evolving online technologies make this information increasingly available and accessible. Tailoring online modalities to meet the unique preferences and needs of Indigenous mothers is an important way to improve their access to reliable and accurate health care information, thereby supporting healthy parenting and promoting infant health.