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How Children Search for Health Information Online: An Observational Study

Paul Branscum1, Natalie Patricio-Agosto1

  • 1Department of Kinesiology and Health, Miami University, Oxford, OH.

Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior
|May 12, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Children struggle to find accurate online health information, particularly regarding nutrition. Effective search strategies are needed to improve their ability to find reliable answers to health questions.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Health
  • Health Informatics
  • Information Science

Background:

  • Children's ability to access and interpret online health information is crucial for promoting healthy behaviors.
  • Understanding children's internet search strategies is essential for developing effective health education interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess children's success in finding answers to obesity-related health questions online.
  • To analyze the search strategies employed by children when seeking health information.

Main Methods:

  • A cross-sectional study involving 25 parent-child dyads.
  • Children searched the internet for 6 nutrition and physical activity-related questions.
  • Search activities were recorded and analyzed for quantitative and qualitative data.

Main Results:

  • Parents generally possessed adequate health literacy.
  • Children successfully answered questions about physical activity recommendations.
  • Children failed to find information on recommended food group servings.

Conclusions:

  • Children often use ineffective search strategies when looking for health information online.
  • There is a need for educational interventions to teach children better internet search skills for health topics.
Abstract

Keywords:
childhood obesitydigital health literacyonline information searching

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