How consumers search for health information

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Information Science

Background:

• Prior research on consumer health information primarily focused on website trust and quality.
• Limited understanding exists regarding the practical search process consumers undertake.
• The digital landscape necessitates a deeper examination of how individuals navigate online health information.

Purpose of the Study:

• To holistically examine the consumer search process for health information.
• To identify specific challenges encountered during online health information seeking.
• To provide insights for improving consumer access to reliable health data.

Main Methods:

• Observation of 48 consumers searching for self-selected health topics using Google.
• Utilized transaction logs, video screen capture, and retrospective verbal protocols.
• Collected data through self-reported questionnaires to complement observational findings.

Main Results:

• Significant difficulties were identified in the formulation of search queries.
• Consumers exhibited inefficiencies in selecting appropriate information from search results lists.
• The study highlights a gap between information availability and effective consumer retrieval.

Conclusions:

• Current search strategies employed by consumers are often suboptimal for finding accurate health information.
• Interventions are needed to enhance consumers' query formulation and result selection skills.
• Improving the consumer search process is crucial for effective health information literacy.