• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.15 no.16
• /
• pp.6499-6504
• /
• 2014

Health information-seeking behavior (HISB) is active need-fulfillment behavior whereby health information is obtained from diverse sources, such as the media, and has emerged as an important issue within the transforming medical environment and the rise of medical consumers. However, little is known about the factors that affect HISB and its associations, and the health outcome of HISB. The aim of this study was to examine individual and social contextual factors associated with HISB and to systematically review their effects on health status among post-treatment cancer patients. Individual determinants of HISB included demographic factors, psychosocial factors, perceived efficacy and norms, and health beliefs. Contextual determinants of HISB encompassed community characteristics, neighborhood social capital, and media advocacy. Improving through factors on these two levels, HISB raised individuals' self-care management skills and medical treatment compliance, and enhanced shared decision-making and medical treatment satisfaction. Moreover, because HISB can differ according to individuals' social contextual conditions, it can give rise to communication inequalities. Because these can ultimately lead to health disparities between groups, social interest in HISB and balanced HISB promotion strategies are necessary.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.217-224
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships among gender, information-seeking styles, and high risk behavior in Korean adults. Methods: A survey utilizing a structured questionnaire was used to examine the relationships of the study variables. Eight hundred fifty six adults were recruited and this group consisted of 403 females and 453 males. Information seeking style and high risk behavior were measured by Miller Behavioral Style Scale revised by Zurren and Wolfs, and High Risk Behaviors checklist developed by Lee, respectively. Results: Differences between gender were significant in information-seeking styles and high risk behavior. Monitoring and blunting scores were both higher in female than male, and high risk behavior was higher in males than females. The blunting style was positively related to high-risk behavior and the monitoring style was negatively related to high risk behavior. Conclusion: To intervene with high risk behavior effectively, individual differences such as gender and information seeking style should be considered. In addition, the research about well-designed health information support is needed in the future.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.403-411
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study is to investigate factors associated with internet health information seeking behavior of younger children's parents. The subjects included 108 parents with infants and children, the survey was conducted with structured questionnaires about attitudes to internet health information, e-health literacy, and internet health information seeking behavior. Data were analyzed by t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, and multiple regression analysis. As a results of the study, perceived usefulness and information utilization was founded to factors associated with internet health information seeking behavior of younger children's parents. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop a program to provide health information and manage utilization by considering the characteristics, usefulness, and information utilization of infants and their parents.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.156-166
• /
• 2020

In this study, 594 questionnaires administered to men and women residing in the capital metropolitan area who work night shifts were analyzed in order to study the effect of health information cognition on healing needs in accordance with the type of food selection criteria of the night worker. The results of confirmatory factor analysis in deriving food selection type identified four categories, a safety seeking type, a food exploratory type, a habitual seeking type, and a rational type, and the cognition types on health information were classified into physical cognition and psychological cognition. The need for healing, which was the investigated factor, was found to have a high correlation between questionnaire items with high reliable consistency. The results of this study were as follows. First, the food selection types of safety seeking type and habitual food seeking type had significant positive effects on the cognitive level of physical health information, and food exploratory type and habitual seeking type had significant positive effects on the cognitive level of psychological health information. In addition, it was shown that food exploratory type and rational type had significant positive effects on healing needs. As a result of this study, it was found that the cognition level of physical and psychological information was different according to food selection type, and the higher the cognitive level, the higher the healing needs. In particular, the result that the level of psychological health information significantly affected healing needs signifies that there is a demand to develop programs and menus that satisfy various needs related to healing and recovery from fatigue. In addition, further interest and study on the health and healing of night workers are required.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.145-152
• /
• 2015

Barriers to health seeking constitute a challenging issue in the treatment of breast cancer. The current meta-synthesis aimed to explore common barriers to health seeking among Malaysian breast cancer patients. From the systematic search, nine studies were found meeting the inclusion criteria. Data extraction revealed that health behavior towards breast cancer among Malaysia women was influenced by knowledge, psychological, sociocultural and medical system factors. In terms of knowledge, most of the Malaysian patients were observed to have cursory information and the reliance on the information provided by media was limiting. Among psychological factors, stress and sense of denial were some of the common factors leading to delay in treatment seeking. Family member's advice, cultural beliefs towards traditional care were some of the common sociocultural factors hindering immediate access to advanced medical diagnosis and care. Lastly, the delay in referral was one of the most common health system-related problems highlighted in most of the studies. In conclusion, there is an immediate need to improve the knowledge and understanding of Malaysian women towards breast cancer. Mass media should liaise with the cancer specialists to disseminate accurate and up-to-date information for the readers and audience, helping in modification of cultural beliefs that hinder timing health seeking. However, such intervention will not improve or rectify the health system related barriers to treatment seeking. Therefore, there is an immediate need for resource adjustment and training programs among health professional to improve their competency and professionalism required to develop an efficient health system.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.1865-1871
• /
• 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
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.1337-1341
• /
• 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 the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
• /
• v.54 no.1
• /
• pp.343-364
• /
• 2020

Historically, mothers have been noted as active health information seekers, reflecting their roles as health mangers and caregivers for their family members. However, previous studies have focused on health-related information behavior among mothers in native populations or mothers of children with specific diagnoses. To fill this research gap, this study focused on health information behavior among mothers of healthy infants and toddlers. Using Wilson's (1997) information-seeking model, this study aimed to uncover the relationships between mothers' demographic characteristics and their health information source use. Online surveys were completed by 851 mothers: 255 U.S.-born mothers, 296 Korean-born mothers, and 300 Korean immigrant mothers living in the United States. Results indicated that there were statistically significant relationships between mothers' nine demographic characteristics (mother's age, education level, household income, employment status, the number of children, years living in the U.S. (or Korea), fluency in speaking English, size of household, housing status) and their health information source use. Based on the results, the implications for information professionals at diverse organizations are discussed when they provide health information services to this specific population.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.499-510
• /
• 2007

This study examined the intake patterns and information-seeking behaviors of elderly individuals with regard to health foods, according to sociodemograhic characteristics, awareness of health, and concerns and awareness about health foods. The data were collected from 421 elderly living in Seoul, Busan, Daegue, Daejon, and Gwangju, between January 17th and February 23rd, 2006. Frequencies and chi-square tests were conducted using SPSS Windows. The results are as follows: The respondents were highly concerned about their own health as well as health foods, and individuals primarily took nutritional supplements and glucosamine containing products. In addition, they had taken various health-improving foods. Most had intentionally consumed at least one health food, in order to maintain a condition of health. According to chi-square tests, women were more likely to consume health foods than men. The most important sources of information regarding health foods were family, relatives, and friends. Some respondents answered they had difficulties in obtaining and understanding health food-related information. Many respondents desired to get health food information regarding efficacy from TV, radio, and newspapers, as well as doctors, pharmacists, and dieticians.

• Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.38-52
• /
• 2022

Since older people are traditionally considered disadvantaged when it comes to Internet use, it is useful to examine whether older individuals use the Internet for health information seeking (HIS). This study aims to investigate digital inequalities in terms of Internet use by older population for HIS in the European region. As methods, we applied secondary data analysis (of Eurostat data) to investigate the influence of age, educational level, sex, and countries' wealth. Cluster analysis combined with multidimensional scaling was used to find out those countries exhibiting similarities in older people's online HIS. The main results are: Older individuals do not equally use the Internet in general and for HIS in particular. Older Internet users with higher level of education and of the female sex are more likely to use the Internet for health information.