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Health information seeking by parents in the Internet age

Kaylyn Khoo1, Penny Bolt, Franz E Babl

  • 1Emergency Department, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.

Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health
|June 20, 2008
PubMed

Insights

Parents frequently use multiple health information sources for their children, primarily trusting traditional ones like general practitioners. While many use the internet for health information, they prefer trusted online sources, especially from reputable institutions.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Health Information Seeking Behavior
  • Parental Health Literacy
  • Digital Health Information Sources

Background:

  • Increasing internet usage for health information is a documented trend.
  • Parents utilize a variety of sources to obtain health information for their children.
  • Understanding parental trust in different health information channels is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine parents' utilization of various health information sources for their children.
  • To assess parental trust levels in different health information sources.
  • To define the role and perceived trustworthiness of the internet in children's health information seeking.

Main Methods:

  • Interviews conducted with a convenience sample of parents.
  • Study participants were parents of patients at a tertiary pediatric emergency department.
  • Data collected in 2006/2007 at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.

Main Results:

  • Parents consulted an average of five health information sources in six months.
  • General practitioners were the most frequently consulted source (87%), followed by the internet (43%).
  • Parents expressed highest trust in hospital doctors/nurses (82%) and general practitioners (73%), with lower trust in the internet (10%).
  • Despite low general trust, 97% of internet users would trust information from the regional children's hospital website.

Conclusions:

  • Parents rely on numerous health information sources, predominantly trusting traditional ones.
  • A significant proportion of parents seek children's health information online.
  • There is a clear demand for easily accessible and trusted internet-based health information sources for children.
Abstract

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