Classifications, Changes, and Challenges of Online Health Information Seekers during COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore consumers' experiences before and during the COVID-19 outbreak to improve public health by providing effective consumer health information. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with 20 health information consumers who were 18 or older until data saturation was reached. The selected participants were among users of the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS). The data were collected before the COVID-19 outbreak (September 2014) and during the COVID-19 outbreak (October 2020) to describe experiences and changes before and during the pandemic. Data were analyzed according to the qualitative content analysis method. RESULTS: As a result, 3 main domains and 10 subdomains were derived from classifications, changes, and challenges of online health information seekers. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study guide the understanding of health information seekers for the development of consumer-tailored health information systems.

Characteristics of the Measurement Tools for Assessing Health Information-Seeking Behaviors in Nationally Representative Surveys: Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has also emerged as an infodemic, thereby worsening the harm of the pandemic. This situation has highlighted the need for a deeply rooted understanding of the health information-seeking behaviors (HISBs) of people. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper was to review and provide insight regarding methodologies and the construct of content in HISB surveys by answering the following research question: what are the characteristics of the measurement tools for assessing HISBs in nationally representative surveys around the world? METHODS: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses was used as the framework for this study. A data search was performed through 5 international and 2 Korean databases covering the years between 2008 and 2020. Initially, studies performed among nationally representative samples were included to discover HISB survey instruments. The methodologies of the studies using HISB surveys were analyzed. For content analysis, 2 researchers reached a consensus through discussion by scrutinizing the contents of each survey questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 13 survey tools from 8 countries were identified after a review of 2333 records from the search results. Five survey tools (Health Information National Trends Survey, Health Tracking Survey, Annenberg National Health Communication Survey, National Health Interview Survey, and Health Tracking Household Survey) from the United States, 2 instruments from Germany, and 1 tool from each of the countries of the European Union, France, Israel, Poland, South Korea, and Taiwan were identified. Telephone or web-based surveys were commonly used targeting the adult population (≥15 years of age). From the content analysis, the domains of the survey items were categorized as follows: information (information about health and patient medical records), channel (offline and online), and health (overall health, lifestyle, and cancer). All categories encompassed behavioral and attitude dimensions. A theoretical framework, that is, an information-channel-health structure for HISBs was proposed. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study can contribute to the development and implementation of the survey tools for HISB with integrated questionnaire items. This will help in understanding HISB trends in national health care.