Pattath Priyadarshini
Division of Health Sciences Diversity, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
J Educ Health Promot. 2021 Jul 30;10:274. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_19_21. eCollection 2021.
The motivation to seek health information on the Internet for individuals has been varied. The purpose of this paper was to explore the perspectives and experiences about online health information seeking in information technology (IT) professionals.
A qualitative case study research design was employed to examine the behavior of 15 IT professionals from a state organization in the East Coast of the United States of America. Convenience sampling was used to identify the setting, and purposeful sampling was used to select the participants. A survey questionnaire was used as a recruitment tool, and in-depth individual interviews with standardized semi-structured questions were used to collect data.
Findings illustrated that the Internet was the first source of reference for wellness and prevention information to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and to alleviate and prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The themes that emerged from the study were that the IT professionals searched the Internet for information to self-educate about medical conditions, to maintain fitness, communicate with health-care professionals, decide their treatment options, and to make lifestyle modifications such as ergonomic adjustment of their workstation, postural adjustments, and changing negative health behaviors.
The results of this study provide practical implications for organizations and health professionals in providing health education to prevent WMSDs as participants sought health information online to take actions and collaborate with their health-care professionals and actively contributed to their medical health decisions. This underscores a valuable opportunity for health-care providers and public health officials to become more proactive by providing their patients with quality health information outside their office through the Internet by referring them to credible website sources.
个人在互联网上寻求健康信息的动机各不相同。本文旨在探讨信息技术（IT）专业人员在网上寻求健康信息的观点和经历。
采用定性案例研究设计，对来自美国东海岸一个州立组织的15名IT专业人员的行为进行研究。便利抽样用于确定研究场景，目的抽样用于选择参与者。使用调查问卷作为招募工具，并通过对标准化半结构化问题进行深入的个人访谈来收集数据。
研究结果表明，互联网是获取健康和预防信息以维持健康生活方式、缓解和预防与工作相关的肌肉骨骼疾病（WMSD）的首要参考来源。该研究中出现的主题是，IT专业人员在互联网上搜索信息，以便自我了解医疗状况、保持健康、与医疗保健专业人员沟通、决定治疗方案，以及做出生活方式的改变，如对工作站进行人体工程学调整、姿势调整和改变不良健康行为。
本研究结果对组织和健康专业人员在提供健康教育以预防WMSD方面具有实际意义，因为参与者在网上寻求健康信息以采取行动并与他们的医疗保健专业人员合作，并积极参与他们的医疗健康决策。这凸显了一个宝贵的机会，医疗保健提供者和公共卫生官员可以更加积极主动，通过互联网在办公室之外为患者提供高质量的健康信息，引导他们访问可靠的网站资源。
