• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.289-324
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• 2021

This study reports on early adolescents' health information seeking behaviors that investigated cognitive, affective, and physical aspects of behaviors as they experienced to find information on their needs of health information seeking. In spite of the current widespread internet health information use by adolescents, little research exists to illuminate how they are engaged in cognitive, affective, and physical information behaviors in information search process. Qualitative data were collected through individual interviews informed by Kuhlthau's information search process. Forty adolescents from S city in South Korea participated in the project. Findings report thoughts, feelings, and actions aspects of information search process. This study expects to extend our knowledge of the adolescents' health information seeking behaviors of Kuhlthau's information search process.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1865-1871
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• 2015

While health information-seeking behavior as an indicator of health communication of patients including cancer survivors has been researched, few studies have focused on how socioeconomic position and media use combine to influence health-related information seekers. This study examined social characteristics of health information-seeking behavior taking into account an individual's socioeconomic position and their media use in Korea, a developed country. The data for this study came from a survey of 1,010 respondents drawn from a nationally representative sample in the Republic of Korea. We conducted multivariate logistic regression analyses for gender-specific effects. We found that men who reported high household income were one and half times more likely to seek health information than those with low income status. We also found that women who performed Internet searches by computer at home were almost two times more likely to seek health information than those who did not. Similar results were found for men as well. Our analyses revealed that socioeconomic position and media use are associated with health information-seeking behavior by gender. Studies on information seekers may bring us more effective health promotion and relevant intervention for people with chronic conditions including cancer survivors.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1337-1341
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• 2015

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer and the second principal cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide, including Malaysia. This study focused on media choice and attempted to determine the communication channels mostly used and preferred by women in seeking information and knowledge about breast cancer. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out to examine the breast cancer prevention information seeking behavior among 450 students at one private university in Malaysia. Results: The mean age of respondents was $25{\pm}4.3years$. Common interpersonal information sources were doctors, friends, and nurses and common channel information sources were television, brochure, and internet. Overall, 89.9% used cell phones, 46.1% had an interest in receiving cell phone breast cancer prevention messages, 73.9% used text messaging, and 36.7% had an interest in receiving text breast cancer prevention messages. Bivariate analysis revealed significant differences among age, eduation, nationality and use of cell phones. Conclusions: Assessment of health information seeking behavior is important for community health educators to target populations for program development.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-28
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• 2019

Dengue infection is becoming a serious global health threat. Public awareness is a pre-requisite for the successful implementation of dengue prevention programs. The main purpose of this study was to investigate dengue-related information needs and seeking behavior of the general public in Singapore. Some areas covered by this study were: importance of dengue-related information needs, preferred channels for seeking information, and respondents' perceptions of using dengue-related information. A questionnaire was used for data collection and 152 individuals participated in this study. Data analysis showed that the most sought after information concerned: dengue-related medicines, primary symptoms of dengue infection, and different possible treatments. The popular channels for seeking information were: websites of hospitals and other health agencies, the social media, television, and newspapers. Medical staff, such as doctors and nurses, were trusted for providing accurate information. Although credibility of social media was considered low, respondents were using it due to its easy accessibility. The findings of this study will be useful to government health departments in Singapore as well as in other countries suffering from dengue, hospitals, and public welfare agencies involved in public health awareness campaigns.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.119-127
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• 2018

Background: This study aimed to examine (1) the patterns of online health information search with respect to seeking and scanning, and (2) how online search, along with eHealth literacy, predicts perceived information usefulness in the context of diet and weight control. Methods: Online survey was conducted with 299 adults from the consumer panel recruited for the purpose of quality assessment of the Korean National Health Information Portal in 2016. We conducted paired sample t-test and multiple logistic regression to address the research questions. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and SAS ver. 9.3 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Results: Of the respondents, 38.8% were 'high seek-high scanners,' 35.8% were 'low seek-low scanners,' 13.0% were 'high seek-low scanners,' and 12.4% were 'low seek-high scanners.' eHealth literacy was a significant, positive predictor of online information scanning (odds ratio [OR], 2.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.41-4.29), but not for online information seeking (OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.00-3.05). With respect to perceived usefulness of online information seeking, online seeking (OR, 4.90; 95% CI, 2.19-11.00) and eHealth literacy (OR, 2.30; 95% CI, 1.11-4.75) were significant predictors. Perceived usefulness of online scanning had a significant association with online scanning (OR, 2.38; 95% CI, 1.08-5.22), but not with eHealth literacy. Conclusion: To increase the effectiveness of the health policy for online information search and related outcomes in the context of diet and weight control, it is important to develop education programs promoting eHealth literacy.

• The Korean Journal of Food & Health Convergence
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.17-26
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to develop strategies and policies for smoking prevention that are tailored to the characteristics of different groups of smokers. The structured survey was conducted with regular smokers. The results were as follows: It has been demonstrated that Risk Perception Attitude framework can be used as a major research framework to predict behavioral changes related to the prevention of smoking. The smokers were divided into four attitude groups based on perceived risks and self-efficacy: indifference, proactive, avoidance, and responsive. The smoker groups showed significant differences in information seeking, information avoidance, prevention behavior and addiction degree. Especially, the difference in prevention behavior depended on the self-efficacy when the perceived risk level was high. Information avoidance was the lowest when the perceived risk level was high and the self-efficacy was low. Information seeking was lowest when the perceived risk level was low. When the level of self-efficacy was high, if the perceived risk level was high, prevention behavior was actively performed. Therefore, the self-efficacy was related to preventive behavior, and the perceived low-risk played a role in hindering information seeking. Smoking prevention strategies are important to raise awareness of the risk of smoking and to improve the positive willingness of smokers to quit smoking through self-efficacy.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.279-300
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• 2021

The present study aimed to investigate the information needs and information seeking behavior of consumers who attempted to quit or maintain the ceasing of smoking and analyze the effects of the health information obtained at different stages. In particular, we examined how consumers use mobile health applications(health apps) as aids to change unhealthy behaviors and how their use of health apps influence health behavior changes. For 7 months from December 2017 to July 2018, the researchers observed changes in smoking behaviors of college students who use smoking-cessation apps and conducted face-to-face interviews. Regarding the effects of smoking-cessation apps, the participants in the action stage reported that they were encouraged to quit smoking by visualized information such as the number of days of smoking cessation, change of health status, and the saving of money due to smoking cessation. The participants in the maintenance stage highlighted that smoking cessation apps were helpful in recognizing the importance and achievement of smoking cessation by sharing experiences and social support with other attempters in the app community. The study provided theoretical implications in the field of information behavior in that it identified the particular types of information needs and information-seeking behavior of the consumers who were using mobile apps in their behavior modification process. In addition, those findings can contribute to designing the contents of the smoking cessation apps that reflect the information needs of those who attempt to cease smoking and further suggest practical insights to health information services that promote effective information intervention strategies in health behavior change.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6027-6032
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• 2012

Purpose: To identify cancer patient and relatives beliefs, information needs, information-seeking behavior and information sources about cancer and treatment. Methods: This research was conducted at two hospitals of a university. Data was collected via questionnaires and the Turkish version of the Miller Behavioral Style Scale (MBSS) to assess information-seeking behavior. The sample included 82 patients and 54 relatives. Results: Patients were receiving treatment mostly for breast, gynecologic, lung cancer and leukemia/ lymphoma. All of them indicated that they want to be informed by a doctor about their diagnosis and treatment first. Other information sources were internet, media and nurses. The majority of the patients and half of their relatives agreed that "cancer is curable and preventable disease". Only 2.5% of patients agreed with the statement "I don't want to get information about disease which disturbs me". According the data obtained from MBSS; the mean patients MBSS score ($6.41{\pm}3.2$) was higher than their relatives ($5.46{\pm}3.1$). Respondents with higher education and younger age indicated more information-seeking behavior. Conclusions: Patients and their relatives differ in some of their information-seeking behavior. Patients beliefs and their strategies for coping with their illness can constrain their wish for information and their efforts to obtain it. Healthcare professionals need to assess and be sensitive to the information-seeking behavior of cancer patients and their relatives.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.121-127
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• 2008

Objectives : This study investigated the health information such as the general health information, the health product information, and the hospital information, and we wanted to identify the association between internet health information and the health related behavior by analyzing the process after people search the Internet. Methods : A telephone survey with structured questionnaire was performed by trained surveyors. The respondents were sampled proportionate to the Korean demographic distribution with considering the city size and the populations' ages and gender. The survey was conducted from October 2006 to November 2006. Results : Out of 3,758 successfully connected persons of age 20 or more, 871(23.2%) respondents had used Internet health information during the last year. The purposes of searching the Internet for health was, 1) to get general health information (717 cases, 81.0%), 2) shopping for health product (109 cases, 12.3%) and 3) seeking information about hospital selection (59 cases, 6.7%). Our research showed that the process after searching the Internet for health information depends on the purpose of the search. 68.8% of the searchers for general health information, 67% of the searchers for health product shopping and 64.4% of the searchers seeking information to guide hospital selection were satisfied with their Internet search. However one third of the respondents reported not being satisfied with the result of the search. Conclusions : Unsatisfied consumers with internet health information tended to ask lay referrals from others or they gave up seeking health information. The health information system should be improved to increase the accessibility and to provide reliable and effective information. Also, a more user-centric community is needed in order to strengthen the effective role of lay referrals among the internet users.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.119-135
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• 2017

Information behavior is an important area of research in library and information science (LIS) that has evolved over the last 75 years. The aim of this study is to investigate the recent trends of information behavior research by providing insights into emerging topical areas within information behavior. To conduct this study, the bibliographic data from Scopus was used, and the trends of information behavior were traced by using variations of key terms used in information behavior research, such as "information behavior", "information seeking behavior", and "information needs." In addition, the trends were analyzed in terms of content words in the title, highly cited journal articles, disciplinary categories, and author keywords. Information behavior research has its roots in LIS, but the findings of the study reveal that information behavior has expanded to other disciplines by intersecting a variety of topical areas. In particular, this study showed that information behavior in the health/medicine domain has become a predominant emerging topical area of research. In order to enhance our understanding of complex human behavior, future research should focus more on interdisciplinary aspects by measuring the scope of information behavior.