Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students
Abstract Background Seeking online health information (OHI) has become a common practice globally. The information seekers could face health risks if they are not proficient in OHI literacy. The OHI-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students, the largest proportion of college students...
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doaj-bf3759f9cc41406daf6f8dc7e86b13f02021-04-18T11:04:08ZengBMCBMC Public Health1471-24582021-04-012111910.1186/s12889-021-10801-0Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college studentsDangui Zhang0Weixin Zhan1Chunwen Zheng2Jinsheng Zhang3Anqi Huang4Shuan Hu5William Ba-Thein6Research Center of Translational Medicine, Second Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical CollegeUndergraduate Research Training Program (UGRTP), Shantou University Medical CollegeUndergraduate Research Training Program (UGRTP), Shantou University Medical CollegeUndergraduate Research Training Program (UGRTP), Shantou University Medical CollegeUndergraduate Research Training Program (UGRTP), Shantou University Medical CollegeUndergraduate Research Training Program (UGRTP), Shantou University Medical CollegeClinical Research Unit, Shantou University Medical CollegeAbstract Background Seeking online health information (OHI) has become a common practice globally. The information seekers could face health risks if they are not proficient in OHI literacy. The OHI-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students, the largest proportion of college students in the world, are understudied. This study was aimed to describe OHI-seeking behaviors and skills of college students in Guangdong, China. Methods College students in the Guangdong province with OHI-seeking experience were invited via WeChat, QQ, and Sina Weibo using QR code posters and flyers for participation in this online anonymized questionnaire-based study. Data on demographics, OHI literacy, information resources, search approaches, and behaviors were collected. The relationship between perceived OHI literacy and high-risk behaviors was investigated by bivariate logistic regression analysis. Results Respondents were 1203 college students with a mean age of 20.6 years, females (60.2%), and undergraduates (97.2%). They sought health information via websites (20.3%), WeChat (2.6%), or both (77.1%). Baidu was the main search engine, and baike.baidu.com (80.3%), Zhihu.com (48.4%), and Zhidao.baidu.com (35.8%) were top three among 20 searched websites for information about self-care (80.7%), general health (79.5%), disease prevention (77.7%), self-medication (61.2%), family treatment (40.9%), drugs (37.7%), western medications (26.6%), hospitals (22.7%), physicians (21.4%), and Traditional Chinese Medicine (15.6%). Despite most respondents (78%) lacked confidence in the evidence quality and satisfaction with the results, only 32.4% further consulted doctors. Many (> 50%) would recommend the retrieved information to others. About 20% experienced hacking/Internet fraud. Cronbach’s alpha for the internal consistency of OHI literacy was 0.786. Bivariate logistic regression analysis showed that students who believed they can judge the evidence level of OHI were more likely to self-diagnose (OR = 2.2, 95%CI, 1.6–3.1) and look for drug usage (OR = 3.1, 95%CI, 1.9–5.0). Conclusions This study reveals Chinese college students’ heavy reliance on OHI to manage their own and others’ health without sufficient knowledge/skills to identify misinformation and disinformation. The apparent risky information-seeking behaviors of Chinese college students warrant the provision of regulated, accurate, and actionable health information; assurance of cybersecurity; and health information literacy promotion in colleges by concerned authorities.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10801-0Chinese college studentsOnline health informationOnline behaviorHealth literacyHealth risk |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Dangui Zhang Weixin Zhan Chunwen Zheng Jinsheng Zhang Anqi Huang Shuan Hu William Ba-Thein |
spellingShingle |
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 BMC Public Health Chinese college students Online health information Online behavior Health literacy Health risk |
author_facet |
Dangui Zhang Weixin Zhan Chunwen Zheng Jinsheng Zhang Anqi Huang Shuan Hu William Ba-Thein |
author_sort |
Dangui Zhang |
title |
Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students |
title_short |
Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students |
title_full |
Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students |
title_fullStr |
Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students |
title_full_unstemmed |
Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students |
title_sort |
online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of chinese college students |
publisher |
BMC |
series |
BMC Public Health |
issn |
1471-2458 |
publishDate |
2021-04-01 |
description |
Abstract Background Seeking online health information (OHI) has become a common practice globally. The information seekers could face health risks if they are not proficient in OHI literacy. The OHI-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students, the largest proportion of college students in the world, are understudied. This study was aimed to describe OHI-seeking behaviors and skills of college students in Guangdong, China. Methods College students in the Guangdong province with OHI-seeking experience were invited via WeChat, QQ, and Sina Weibo using QR code posters and flyers for participation in this online anonymized questionnaire-based study. Data on demographics, OHI literacy, information resources, search approaches, and behaviors were collected. The relationship between perceived OHI literacy and high-risk behaviors was investigated by bivariate logistic regression analysis. Results Respondents were 1203 college students with a mean age of 20.6 years, females (60.2%), and undergraduates (97.2%). They sought health information via websites (20.3%), WeChat (2.6%), or both (77.1%). Baidu was the main search engine, and baike.baidu.com (80.3%), Zhihu.com (48.4%), and Zhidao.baidu.com (35.8%) were top three among 20 searched websites for information about self-care (80.7%), general health (79.5%), disease prevention (77.7%), self-medication (61.2%), family treatment (40.9%), drugs (37.7%), western medications (26.6%), hospitals (22.7%), physicians (21.4%), and Traditional Chinese Medicine (15.6%). Despite most respondents (78%) lacked confidence in the evidence quality and satisfaction with the results, only 32.4% further consulted doctors. Many (> 50%) would recommend the retrieved information to others. About 20% experienced hacking/Internet fraud. Cronbach’s alpha for the internal consistency of OHI literacy was 0.786. Bivariate logistic regression analysis showed that students who believed they can judge the evidence level of OHI were more likely to self-diagnose (OR = 2.2, 95%CI, 1.6–3.1) and look for drug usage (OR = 3.1, 95%CI, 1.9–5.0). Conclusions This study reveals Chinese college students’ heavy reliance on OHI to manage their own and others’ health without sufficient knowledge/skills to identify misinformation and disinformation. The apparent risky information-seeking behaviors of Chinese college students warrant the provision of regulated, accurate, and actionable health information; assurance of cybersecurity; and health information literacy promotion in colleges by concerned authorities. |
topic |
Chinese college students Online health information Online behavior Health literacy Health risk |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10801-0 |
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