Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Bioethics, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Program of Learning Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
J Med Internet Res. 2022 Sep 2;24(9):e29609. doi: 10.2196/29609.
With the increase in the use of the internet to search for health information about health-related problems, there is a need for health care professionals to better understand how their patients search for and use the online health information that may influence their medical decision making.
The aims of this study are to explore laypeople's online health information search strategies and examine the relationships between their search strategies and utilization behavior of online health information.
Two scales, namely match and elaboration, were used to measure patients' basic search strategies (ie, simple approach) and advanced search strategies (ie, integrative approach), respectively. In addition, the consultation scale was used to evaluate the participants' use of online health information to consult doctors and others. A total of 253 outpatients without university education were purposely selected and surveyed. The participants were outpatients at a university-affiliated teaching hospital. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed to analyze the measurement model to specify the measurement validation. In addition, the structure model of PLS-SEM was evaluated to examine the path correlations between variables and to execute interaction effect and curvilinear relationship analyses.
The results of the path correlation analysis by PLS-SEM showed that both elaboration strategy (path coefficient=0.55, P<.001) and match strategy (path coefficient=0.36, P<.001) were positively correlated with consultation on online health information with doctors and others. In addition, interaction effect and curvilinear relationship analyses indicated that there was a significant interaction effect between elaboration and match on consultation (path coefficient=-0.34, P<.001) and a significant curvilinear relationship between match and consultation (path coefficient=-0.09, P=.046).
Increasing patients' exposure to online health information through both a simple search approach (ie, match strategy) and a complex search approach (ie, elaboration strategy) may lead them to appropriately use the information to consult doctors and others. However, the results of interaction effect and curvilinear relationship analyses highlighted the essential role of the elaboration strategy to properly locate, evaluate, and apply online health information. The findings of this study may help health care professionals better understand how to communicate with their patients through the health information on the internet.
随着互联网在搜索与健康相关问题的健康信息方面的使用增加，医疗保健专业人员需要更好地了解患者如何搜索和使用可能影响其医疗决策的在线健康信息。
本研究旨在探讨非专业人士的在线健康信息搜索策略，并研究其搜索策略与在线健康信息使用行为之间的关系。
使用匹配和阐述两个量表分别测量患者的基本搜索策略（即简单方法）和高级搜索策略（即综合方法）。此外，还使用咨询量表评估参与者使用在线健康信息咨询医生和他人的情况。共选择了 253 名未接受过大学教育的门诊患者进行了有针对性的调查。参与者是大学附属医院的门诊患者。采用偏最小二乘结构方程建模（PLS-SEM）对测量模型进行分析，以明确测量验证。此外，还评估了 PLS-SEM 的结构模型，以检验变量之间的路径相关性，并执行交互效应和曲线关系分析。
PLS-SEM 的路径相关性分析结果表明，阐述策略（路径系数=0.55，P<.001）和匹配策略（路径系数=0.36，P<.001）均与在线咨询医生和他人的健康信息呈正相关。此外，交互效应和曲线关系分析表明，阐述和匹配对咨询的交互作用显著（路径系数=-0.34，P<.001），匹配和咨询之间存在显著的曲线关系（路径系数=-0.09，P=.046）。
通过简单搜索方法（即匹配策略）和复杂搜索方法（即阐述策略）增加患者对在线健康信息的接触，可能使他们能够适当地利用信息咨询医生和他人。然而，交互效应和曲线关系分析的结果强调了阐述策略在适当定位、评估和应用在线健康信息方面的重要作用。本研究的结果可能有助于医疗保健专业人员更好地了解如何通过互联网上的健康信息与患者进行沟通。
