Background
The increase in the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) has contributed to physicians and nurses experiencing information overload. To address the problem of information overload, ...an assessment of the information needs of physicians and nurses will assist in understanding what they view as useful information to make patient care more efficient.
Objective
To analyse studies that assessed the information needs and information‐seeking behaviour of physicians and nurses in a primary care setting to develop a better understanding of what information to present to physicians when they making clinical decisions.
Method
A literature review of studies was conducted with a comprehensive search in PubMed, cinahl, scopus, as well as examination of references from relevant papers and hand‐searched articles to identify articles applicable to this review.
Results
Of the papers reviewed the most common information needs found among physicians and nurses were related to diagnoses, drug(s) and treatment/therapy. Colleagues remain a preferred information source among physicians and nurses; however, a rise in Internet usage is apparent.
Conclusion
Physicians and nurses need access to the Internet and job‐specific resources to find practitioner‐oriented information. In addition, effective usage of resources is important for improving patient care.
People with dementia often require full-time caregivers especially in the later stages of their condition. People with dementia and caregivers' access to reliable information on dementia is essential ...as it may have an important impact on patient care and quality of life. This study aims to provide an overview of the information needs and information seeking behaviour of people with dementia and their non-professional caregivers.
We conducted a scoping review of the literature and searched four electronic databases for eligible studies published up to August 2018. Two reviewers independently screened studies and extracted data. Information needs were classified according to emerging themes in the literature, and information seeking behaviour was categorized using Wilson's model of information behaviour.
Twenty studies with a total of 4140 participants, were included in this review. Reported information needs focused on: (i) disease; (ii) patient care provision; (iii) healthcare services; and (iv) caregiver self-care. The most commonly reported information need was on healthcare service-related information. Characteristics found to influence information needs were the severity of dementia as well as patient and caregiver status. People with dementia and non-professional caregivers mainly displayed active searching, information seeking behaviour and preferred using electronic sources to obtain health information.
Current dementia information sources available in English are extensive in the information they offer, but more emphasis needs to be placed on healthcare service-related information. All studies originated from high income countries and focused on information needs of non-professional caregivers only. The only variables found to be associated to information needs were severity of dementia condition as well as patient/caregiver status. The information needs identified in this review can be used to inform development and design of future dementia resources for people with dementia and their non-professional caregivers.
The main purpose of this article is to present a model for information-seeking behaviour with an emphasis on unplanned and planned behaviour of users in using library resources and services. The ...working method was that, reviewing the literature and previous information behaviour models, such as Wilson, Ellis, Kuhlthau, and Dervin models, this article proposes a novel model of information-seeking behaviour for library users. Our model of information-seeking behaviour was developed by combining the existing models of planned information-seeking behaviour with the focus on the factors affecting unplanned rather than planned behaviour of users in accessing resources or services. Our proposed model for information-seeking behaviour of clients has two main parts. The first part planned behaviour resulting from a problem or a certain information need according to which the user seeks to find information in a planned manner. The second part deals with unplanned behaviour shaped by a hidden or uncertain information need. Finally, both types of behaviour can result in the discovery, extraction, collection and use of information.
Background
In 2007, Lambert and Loiselle conducted an extensive concept analysis of the term health information seeking behaviour (HISB) to examine the concept's level of maturity and critically ...analyse its characteristics. Since their groundbreaking work, HISB has evolved with the proliferation of ICTs. The Internet is now a common and often preferred medium for the pursuit of health information.
Objectives
The previous analysis spanned 42 years of literature; this article describes an analysis of the last 10 years of literature on HISB and how online seeking has caused the concept to evolve in the literature.
Methods
This study used the concept analysis methodology employed by Lambert and Loiselle in the original analysis. It also included a systematic search conducted in five databases to identify studies from 2007 to 2017, using similar inclusion criteria from the original study.
Results
Of the more than 500 articles retrieved, 85 journal articles met the inclusion criteria. Consistent with the original work, articles that included outcomes were identified as either behavioural or cognitive.
Conclusion
Most of the attention of the works studied focused on individuals and their information source preferences. This HISB analysis can be incorporated with studies to understand how various communities seek information in online versus non‐online contexts.
Most households in the United Kingdom have Internet access, and health-related Internet use is increasing. The National Health Service (NHS) Direct website is the major UK provider of online health ...information.
Our objective was to identify the characteristics and motivations of online health information seekers accessing the NHS Direct website, and to examine the benefits and challenges of the health Internet.
We undertook an online questionnaire survey, offered to users of the NHS Direct website. A subsample of survey respondents participated in in-depth, semistructured, qualitative interviews by telephone or instant messaging/email. Questionnaire results were analyzed using chi-square statistics. Thematic coding with constant comparison was used for interview transcript analysis.
In total 792 respondents completed some or all of the survey: 71.2% (534/750 with data available) were aged under 45 years, 67.4% (511/758) were female, and 37.7% (286/759) had university-level qualifications. They sought information for themselves (545/781, 69.8%), someone else (172/781, 22.0%), or both (64/781, 8.2%). Women were more likely than men to seek help for someone else or both themselves and someone else (168/509 vs 61/242, χ(2) (2) = 6.35, P = .04). Prior consultation with a health professional was reported by 44.9% (346/770), although this was less common in younger age groups (<36 years) (χ(2) (1) = 24.22, P < .001). Participants aged 16 to 75 years (n = 26, 20 female, 6 male) were recruited for interview by telephone (n = 23) and instant messaging/email (n = 3). Four major interview themes were identified: motivations for seeking help online; benefits of seeking help in this way and some of the challenges faced; strategies employed in navigating online health information provision and determining what information to use and to trust; and specific comments regarding the NHS Direct website service. Within the motivation category, four concepts emerged: the desire for reassurance; the desire for a second opinion to challenge other information; the desire for greater understanding to supplement other information; and perceived external barriers to accessing information through traditional sources. The benefits clustered around three theme areas: convenience, coverage, and anonymity. Various challenges were discussed but no prominent theme emerged. Navigating online health information and determining what to trust was regarded as a "common sense" activity, and brand recognition was important. Specific comments about NHS Direct included the perception that the online service was integrated with traditional service provision.
This study supports a model of evolutionary rather than revolutionary change in online health information use. Given increasing resource constraints, the health care community needs to seek ways of promoting efficient and appropriate health service use, and should aim to harness the potential benefits of the Internet, informed by an understanding of how and why people go online for health.
Title. Combining individual interviews and focus groups to enhance data richness.
Aim. This paper is a presentation of the critical reflection on the types of findings obtained from the combination ...of individual interviews and focus groups, and how such triangulation contributes to knowledge production and synthesis.
Background. Increasingly, qualitative method triangulation is advocated as a strategy to achieve more comprehensive understandings of phenomena. Although ontological and epistemological issues pertaining to triangulation are a topic of debate, more practical discussions are needed on its potential contributions, such as enhanced data richness and depth of inquiry.
Method. Data gathered through individual interviews and focus groups from a study on patterns of cancer information‐seeking behaviour are used to exemplify the added‐value but also the challenges of relying on methods combination.
Findings. The integration of focus group and individual interview data made three main contributions: a productive iterative process whereby an initial model of the phenomenon guided the exploration of individual accounts and successive individual data further enriched the conceptualisation of the phenomenon; identification of the individual and contextual circumstances surrounding the phenomenon, which added to the interpretation of the structure of the phenomenon; and convergence of the central characteristics of the phenomenon across focus groups and individual interviews, which enhanced trustworthiness of findings.
Conclusion. Although the use of triangulation is promising, more work is needed to identify the added‐value or various outcomes pertaining to method combination and data integration.
This article revisits the controversial relationship of entertainment and political communication. On the basis of a theoretical integration of entertainment theory with theories of motivated ...information processing, we suggest that entertainment consumption can either be driven by hedonic, escapist motivations that are associated with a superficial mode of information processing, or by eudaimonic, truth‐seeking motivations that prompt more elaborate forms of information processing. Results of two experiments indicate that eudaimonic forms of emotional involvement (characterized by negative valence, moderate arousal, and feeling moved) stimulated reflective thoughts about politically relevant content, issue interest, and information seeking. This pattern was consistent across two types of entertainment stimuli (fictional films and soft news) and two types of affect manipulations (moving film music and moving exemplars).
The emergence of the Internet has increased access to health information and can facilitate active individual engagement in health care decision making. Hispanics are the fastest-growing minority ...group in the United States and are also the most underserved in terms of access to online health information. A growing body of literature has examined correlates of online health information seeking behaviors (HISBs), but few studies have included Hispanics.
The specific aim of this descriptive, correlational study was to examine factors associated with HISBs of Hispanics.
The study sample (N=4070) was recruited from five postal zip codes in northern Manhattan for the Washington Heights Inwood Informatics Infrastructure for Comparative Effectiveness Research project. Survey data were collected via interview by bilingual community health workers in a community center, households, and other community settings. Data were analyzed using bivariate analyses and logistic regression.
Among individual respondents, online HISBs were significantly associated with higher education (OR 3.03, 95% CI 2.15-4.29, P<.001), worse health status (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.31-0.57, P<.001), and having no hypertension (OR 0.60, 95% CI 0.43-0.84, P=.003). Online HISBs of other household members were significantly associated with respondent factors: female gender (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.22-2.10, P=.001), being younger (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.62-0.90, P=.002), being married (OR 1.36, 95% CI 1.09-1.71, P=.007), having higher education (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.404-2.316, P<.001), being in worse health (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.46-0.77, P<.001), and having serious health problems increased the odds of their household members' online HISBs (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.29-2.60, P=.001).
This large-scale community survey identified factors associated with online HISBs among Hispanics that merit closer examination. To enhance online HISBs among Hispanics, health care providers and policy makers need to understand the cultural context of the Hispanic population. Results of this study can provide a foundation for the development of informatics-based interventions to improve the health of Hispanics in the United States.
Young people regularly use online services to seek help and look for information about mental health problems. Yet little is known about the effects that online services have on mental health and ...whether these services facilitate help-seeking in young people.
This systematic review investigates the effectiveness of online services in facilitating mental health help-seeking in young people.
Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, literature searches were conducted in PubMed, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane library. Out of 608 publications identified, 18 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria of investigating online mental health services and help-seeking in young people aged 14-25 years.
Two qualitative, 12 cross-sectional, one quasi-experimental, and three randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were reviewed. There was no change in help-seeking behavior found in the RCTs, while the quasi-experimental study found a slight but significant increase in help-seeking. The cross-sectional studies reported that online services facilitated seeking help from a professional source for an average of 35% of users. The majority of the studies included small sample sizes and a high proportion of young women. Help-seeking was often a secondary outcome, with only 22% (4/18) of studies using adequate measures of help-seeking. The majority of studies identified in this review were of low quality and likely to be biased. Across all studies, young people regularly used and were generally satisfied with online mental health resources. Facilitators and barriers to help-seeking were also identified.
Few studies examine the effects of online services on mental health help-seeking. Further research is needed to determine whether online mental health services effectively facilitate help-seeking for young people.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the predictive factors of information seeking behavior of smartphone users from the cross-generational perspective. Based on existing literature, ...the two most popular types of information seeking behavior of smartphone users were determined: social information seeking behavior; and functional/cognitive information seeking behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire comprising 66 questions was administered online to 216 smartphone users of three age groups according to three generations: generation X, Y (millennials) and Z. Several predictive factors were examined for each of these information seeking behavior types: generation, gender, personality traits (the Big Five), daily usage time, period of ownership, various application utilization and the level of emotional gain from smartphones.
Findings
There is a trade-off between the two types of information seeking behavior. Also, men exhibited significantly more functional/cognitive information seeking behavior than women, and younger generations reported significantly higher emotional gain and social information seeking behavior than older generations. Interestingly, significant differences in smartphone apps’ utilization, information seeking behavior types and their predictive factors were found among users from different generations. Extraversion was positively related to social information seeking behavior only for generations X and Y, while WhatsApp usage was one of the strongest predictive factors only for generation Z.
Practical implications
This research has practical implications for information system design, education, e-commerce and libraries.
Originality/value
This is a first study that systematically examines predictive factors of the two prominent types of information seeking behavior on smartphones from the cross-generational perspective.
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