“That Should Be Left to Doctors, That’s What They are There For!”—Exploring the Reflexivity and Trust of Young Adults When Seeking Health Information
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This paper explores the health information-seeking practices of healthy young adults and how they assess and rank sources of information through a qualitative study. The findings show that participants (a) are strongly committed to searching for information about health and lifestyle, especially via the Internet; (b) healthcare professionals were perceived as the most reliable source of health information and advice; (c) online health information, although frequently accessed and experienced as empowering, is seen as a potentially unreliable source. Findings evidence how becoming better informed about health-related topics plays a pivotal role in individuals' lives, most notably by using the Internet. Participants were able to reflect about what it means to know about health. The construction of trust regarding health information involved a heuristic process vis-à-vis source reliability and perceived credibility that places doctors as the most trustworthy medium of medical advice and health information. We conclude that participants' trust toward professionals suggests the preference and need for more personalized care; and it is a response to the ambiguity and uncertainty that permeates the health information landscape, particularly that which is web-based.
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Self-diagnosing symptoms while remaining anonymous, such as by posting in online health forums, was popular.
“Self-diagnosing symptoms while remaining anonymous such as by posting in online health forums was popular [37, 50] for a number of reasons.”
The overwhelming amount of information online can result in the masking of credible sources.
“The overwhelming amount of information online can also result in the masking of credible sources [50].”
This impacts patients' ability to depend on information and causes the public to find the internet less reliable than other sources of information such as HCPs.
“This impacts patients’ ability to depend on information and causes the public to find the internet less reliable than other sources of information such as HCPs [50].”
Most patients viewed their research as a complementary information source to be used alongside treatment from their HCP.
“However, most patients viewed their research as a complementary information source to be used alongside treatment from their HCP [30, 36, 47, 49, 50].”
HCPs appear to be the most valuable source of health information.
“HCP’s thus appear to be the most valuable source of health information [50].”
Most studies emphasised that, regardless of the popularity of online self-diagnosis, the majority of respondents valued HCPs' opinions more, understood their explanations of diagnoses better, and had more trust in them.
“Most studies emphasised that, regardless of the popularity of online self-diagnosis, the majority of respondents valued HCP’s opinions more, understood their explanations of diagnoses better, and had more trust in them [30, 50].”
The internet is not seen as a replacement for visiting a HCP, but as offering a complimentary source of information.
“The internet is not seen as a replacement for visiting a HCP, but as offering a complimentary source of information [30, 50, 51].”
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- Authors
- Mendes, Á., Abreu, L., Vilar-Correia, M. R., & Borlido-Santos, J.
- Affiliations
- Universidade do Porto (PT)
- i3S – Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto
- Venue
- Health Communication
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2016-08-02
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1076-1081
- ISSN
- 1041-0236 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-7027
- OpenAlex
- W2479798557
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 8.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Health Communication (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- FCT/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação - project “ Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences“ (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274)
- FEDER (COMPETE 2020 - POCI, Portugal 2020)
- FCT (SFRH/BPD/88647/2012, SFRH/BD/78949/2011)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information Retrieval and Search Behavior
- Keywords
- health information seeking, young adults, trust in health information, source reliability, online health information, physician-patient relationship, perceived credibility, heuristics, individualized care, health literacy
- MeSH terms
- Female, Humans, Male, Physicians, Reproducibility of Results, Internet, Trust, Qualitative Research, Consumer Health Information, Information Seeking Behavior
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