e-Health and new moms: Contextual factors associated with sources of health information

Guided by the Uses and Gratifications approach, to examine mothers' use and preference of e-Health media, and associated contextual factors.

Cross-sectional survey of 165 mothers (White, African-American, and Hispanic) from a stratified random sample.

Use of online media about mother-baby care; favorite websites about motherhood and best-liked features of Web sites; channel preferences (Web site, postal mail, text) for receiving three types of health information; and contextual factors, e.g., education.

Media use ranged from 96% for health information searches about babies to 46% for YouTube viewing about mother-baby topics. Contextual factors, such as education, were associated with media use. Babycenter was the most frequently reported favorite Web site and rich, relevant information was the best-liked feature. Across three health topics (weight, stress/depression, parenting) mothers preferred receiving information by Web site, followed by postal mail and least by text messaging (χ² statistics, p < .001). Stress and race/ethnicity were among factors associated with preferences.

Mothers widely used e-Health related media, but use was associated with contextual factors. In public health efforts to reach new mothers, partnering with mother-favored Web sites, focusing on audience-relevant media, and adopting attributes of successful sites are recommended strategies.