Scantlebury Arabella, Booth Alison, Hanley Bec
York Trials Unit, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of York, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom.
TwoCan Associates, 59 Wickham Hill, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, BN6 9NR, United Kingdom.
Int J Med Inform. 2017 Jul;103:103-108. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.04.018. Epub 2017 May 1.
With technology advancements making vast amounts of health information available whenever and wherever it is required, there is a growing need to understand how this information is being accessed and used.
Our aim was to explore patients/public and health professionals' experiences, practices and preferences for accessing health information.
Focus groups were conducted with 35 healthcare professionals (31 nurses and 4 allied health professionals) and 14 patients/members of the public. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 5 consultants, who were unable to attend the focus groups. Data collection took place between March and May 2013 and all data were analysed thematically.
Health professionals and patients/members of the public reported primarily accessing health information to inform their decision making for providing and seeking treatment respectively. For all participants the internet was the primary mechanism for accessing health information, with health professionals' access affected by open access charges; time constraints and access to computers. Variation in how patients/members of the public and health professionals appraise the quality of information also emerged, with a range of techniques for assessing quality reported.
There was a clear preference for accessing health information online within our sample. Given that this information is central to both patient and health professionals' decision making, it is essential that these individuals are basing their decisions on high quality information. Findings from this study have implications for educationalists, health professionals, policymakers and the public.
随着技术进步，大量健康信息在需要时随时随地都可获取，因此越来越有必要了解这些信息是如何被获取和使用的。
我们的目标是探讨患者/公众和卫生专业人员获取健康信息的经历、做法和偏好。
对35名卫生专业人员（31名护士和4名专职医疗人员）和14名患者/公众进行了焦点小组访谈。对5名无法参加焦点小组的顾问进行了半结构化访谈。数据收集于2013年3月至5月进行，所有数据均进行了主题分析。
卫生专业人员和患者/公众报告称，主要是为了分别为提供治疗和寻求治疗的决策提供信息而获取健康信息。对于所有参与者来说，互联网是获取健康信息的主要途径，卫生专业人员的获取受到开放获取费用、时间限制和计算机使用的影响。患者/公众和卫生专业人员评估信息质量的方式也存在差异，报告了一系列评估质量的技术。
在我们的样本中，明显倾向于在线获取健康信息。鉴于这些信息对患者和卫生专业人员的决策都至关重要，这些人基于高质量信息做出决策至关重要。本研究结果对教育工作者、卫生专业人员、政策制定者和公众都有影响。
