Dangui Zhang|Weixin Zhan|Chunwen Zheng|Jinsheng Zhang|Anqi Huang|Shuan Hu|William Ba?Thein
Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students
Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College|Shantou University|Shantou University|Shantou University Medical College|Shantou University|Shantou University Medical College|Shantou University|Shantou University Medical College|Shantou University|Shantou University Medical College|Shantou University|Shantou University Medical College|Shantou University|Shantou University Medical College
abstract background seeking online health information ohi become common practice globally information seekers could face health risks proficient ohi literacy ohiseeking behaviors skills chinese college students largest proportion college students world understudied study aimed describe ohiseeking behaviors skills college students guangdong china methods college students guangdong province ohiseeking experience invited via wechat qq sina weibo using qr code posters flyers participation online anonymized questionnairebased study data demographics ohi literacy information resources search approaches behaviors collected relationship perceived ohi literacy highrisk behaviors investigated bivariate logistic regression analysis results respondents 1203 college students mean age 206 years females 602 undergraduates 972 sought health information via websites 203 wechat 26 771 baidu main search engine baikebaiducom 803 zhihucom 484 zhidaobaiducom 358 top three among 20 searched websites information selfcare 807 general health 795 disease prevention 777 selfmedication 612 family treatment 409 drugs 377 western medications 266 hospitals 227 physicians 214 traditional chinese medicine 156 despite respondents 78 lacked confidence evidence quality satisfaction results 324 consulted doctors many gt 50 would recommend retrieved information others 20 experienced hackinginternet fraud cronbachs alpha internal consistency ohi literacy 0786 bivariate logistic regression analysis showed students believed judge evidence level ohi likely selfdiagnose 22 95ci 1631 look drug usage 31 95ci 1950 conclusions study reveals chinese college students heavy reliance ohi manage others health without sufficient knowledgeskills identify misinformation disinformation apparent risky informationseeking behaviors chinese college students warrant provision regulated accurate actionable health information assurance cybersecurity health information literacy promotion colleges concerned authorities