Health Information—Seeking Behavior

“Consequently, this provides them richer knowledge of online health information and in turn, positively affects well-being through improving the health knowledge and self-care skills (48, 49).”

“Given that prior to the 1990s, only a few seminal works had addressed the concept of health information-seeking behavior [12], the study was restricted to original research articles published in peer-reviewed journals between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 2012.”

“This gendered nature of health and health information practices is also embedded in traditional rural values (Coldwell, 2007), and rural women often take on the role of a primary health info(r)mediator for their family (Harris et al., 2006; Harris & Wathen, 2007; Wyatt et al., 2008); however, to properly discuss this…”

“In this study “health information-seeking behaviour” refers to individuals’ use of specific actions and/or strategies to acquire health information (Lambert and Loiselle, 2007, p. 1,008).”

“Health information seeking is a sense-making process that involves searching and receiving health messages, understanding health status, and reducing uncertainty by constructing a social and personal sense of health (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007; Lenz, 1984).”

“Health information–seeking behavior can influence an individual’s decision-making and overall health [1].”

“For example, the current generation of youth has unprecedented access to the larger world due to advances in media and technology (Brown & Bobkowski, 2011) and commonly uses the Internet to gain health-related information (Gray, Klein, Noyce, Sesselberg, & Cantrill, 2005).”

“When searching for health information, people with chronic illness use a wide range of information sources for different purposes [29–31], including various interpersonal sources, traditional, and new media, which are often used simultaneously [19,32].”

“The internet has become crucial for health information dissemination in the digital era [1,2].”

“The positive effects of a corresponding monitoring style may be due to the fact that both members of the dyad equally value information and/or are more supportive of each other’s concerns when confronting ambiguous information (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007; Rosen & Knauper, 2009).”

“On the other hand, HISB refers to the strategies or approaches which an individual uses to acquire information (Lambert and Loiselle 2007).”

“The CMIS is one of the key theoretical frameworks explaining individuals’ health information seeking (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007) and has also been widely used in literature on health information and its seeking (Oh, 2016).”

“The findings from participants' qualitative responses suggest that particular patterns of technology use (e.g., rises or drops in the frequency of use or the use of certain types of technology) may serve as signals about a bipolar episode that is approaching or already in progress.”

“Lambert & Loiselle [28], in their review, found that the behavior of health information searching is often studied within the context of coping with illness, involvement in medical decision-making, or preventive behavior.”

“Information seeking is an important aspect of coping with chronic illness (Lambert and Loiselle 2007; Brashers et al.”

“Email: sjeong@korea.ac.kr Individuals’ information seeking plays a crucial role in health and risk communication because individuals’ knowledge and behavior could be influenced by information seeking (Kelly et al., 2010; Lambert & Loiselle, 2007; Shim et al., 2006).”

“Health information seeking relates to the ways in which individuals obtain information, including information about their health, health promotion activities, risks to one’s health, and illness [16].”

“Information seeking is increasingly recognized as a key coping strategy (Lambert and Loiselle, 2007), including by those with bipolar disorder who function at a high level (Murray et al., 2011).”

“It occurs for dealing with health-threatening situations, making medical decisions, and behavioural changes and preventativemeasures [28].”

“Seeking information about one’s health is an important component of health decision-making and self-care.(1) Health information-seeking behaviour is defined as the way people access information relevant to their health, such as health promotion, risk factors, and illnesses.”

“Specifically, health information seeking relates to how and why people acquire health information, the channels they use to locate health information, preferred media for receiving health information and how found information is utilised (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007; Warner & Procaccino, 2004).”

“…seeking behavior refers to a series of approaches and actions with which people inquire about health-related topics to assess potential complaints (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007) and develop health-protective behaviors (Mills & Todorova, 2016) with the aim to reduce “ the uncertainty regarding [their]…”

“First-time mothers are known to actively seek information regarding infant feeding during pregnancy and through their infants’ first year.(7) In primitive human populations, women learned infant feeding behaviors by observing other women and infants.”

“In addition, some studies propose that feelings of worry and anxiety about a risk situation may promote one’s motivation to seek more health information (Grasso & Bell, 2015; Lambert & Loiselle, 2007).”

“Other empirical studies, however, have revealed more negative outcomes (e.g., feeling overwhelmed, worry, fear, anxiety; Lambert & Loiselle, 2007).”

“Patients consulting online sources to gather information about medical symptoms is a current and widespread phenomenon in health information-seeking behavior [1, 2].”

“people sought and the frequency of health information that they sought.(2) Health information-seeking behavior refers to the ability of individuals and communities to understand and act on health information to improve health outcome at an individual and a community level.”

“HISBs are purposeful activities to obtain health information (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007; Niederdeppe et al., 2007; Zimmerman & Shaw, 2020).”

“001 Pharmacological and biologic treatments 2849 (54) 1659 (55) 1190 (53) Supplements and special diets 1799 (34) 1184 (39) 615 (27) Other CAM treatments 1349 (26) 740 (25) 609 (27) Mind-body interventions 573 (11) 458 (15) 115 (5) Alternative medical systems 343 (7) 226 (8) 117 (5) Spiritual and energy therapies 164…”

“As an important topic of communication studies, risk information seeking has drawn increased attention from health communication scholars, who have focused on its characteristics, antecedents, and outcomes to fully comprehend individuals’ risk information seeking and processing since the mid −1990s (Lambert and Loisel…”

“Health information helps to engage the public and influences perspectives on wellness knowledge (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007; Der Molem, 1999).”

“Health information seeking that refers to the purposive acquisition of health-related information to lessen health status uncertainty and increase understanding of illnesses [7], offers a key strategy for those patients who are psychosocially adjusting themselves to their illnesses [8].”

“19 OHCs differ from traditional online services because healthcare services are credence goods, that is, goods for which physicians know their patients’ needs better than the patients themselves.”

“Seeking health information is “a key coping strategy in health-promotive activities and psychosocial adjustment to illness” (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007, p. 1006).”

“In fact, consumers differ from one another in their information preferences due to personal, familiar, cognitive and social factors that influence their trust of and preferences for different food information sources (Lambert and Loiselle 2007; Manafo and Wong 2012; Verbeke 2008).”

“Health information seeking behavior (HISB) influences the number and types of actions known to individuals, knowledge about the pros and cons of different actions, and the available resources to carry out actions [11].”

“HEALTH INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIORS Health information-seeking behaviors traditionally lack a homogenous definition as they are used distinctly in multiple disciplines without interdisciplinary concern and hence bear assumed simplicity (Lambert and Loiselle, 2007).”

“Prior research studied many individuals and contextual factors of health information seeking and sharing including socio-demographic characteristics, personality traits, beliefs, attitudes, contexts, sources of information, trust and relationships along with various theoretical perspectives such as net valence model,…”

“Mental health information-seeking behavior includes the main channels people use for searching or receiving mental health information and how they assess and trust them (17).”

“Health information seeking refers to those actions that individuals use to search for information about their health, risks, illnesses, and health-protective behaviors [13].”

“, health information-seeking; [26]).”

“For instance, better informed patients score higher on affective outcomes, for example, they are more satisfied with their treatment [6-9] and feel less anxious [5,10,11].”

“Most research on health-related Internet use has focused on health information seeking and the assumption that poor health or medical problems are the primary reasons people search for health information online (Lambert & Loiselle 2007).”

“Lambert and Loiselle [14] Patient Education and Counseling 92 (2013) 74–80”

“…information about health is increasingly documented as a key coping strategy in health-promotive activities and psychosocial adjustment to illness (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007); however, more than 80% of caregivers have reported the need for more information on caregiving topics (National Alliance…”

“Understanding the health information seeking behavior, the use of different communication channels to obtain health and cancer information, and, in particular, the use of the Internet for health-related purposes is of great relevance given the rapid increase in the amount of information available, and its potential to…”

“…behavior is referred to as an understanding how and why individuals who reside in the United States acquire health information, where they go to retrieve such information, what particular types of information they prefer, and how the health information sought is used (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007).”

“Public Health 2023, 20, 2611. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032611 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph The way people look for information regarding health-related topics has been defined as “Health Information-Seeking Behaviour” (HISB) [4] and, specifically for online search, Online health information-seeking behav…”

“…number of prior studies have identified a series of predictors for health information-seeking behavior (HISB; e.g., Johnson & Meischke, 1992; Lambert & Loiselle, 2007; Zhao et al., 2015), scarce research has extensively examined whether these crucial predictors exhibit similar patterns…”

“How individuals seek information is context specific and shaped by cultural norms, social positions, exposure to and accessibility of information sources, and type of information needed (Harris et al., 2012; Hiebert et al., 2018; Johnson, 2003; Lambert & Loiselle, 2007).”

“Information seeking encompasses the act of accumulating information to gain clarity or affirm knowledge about a specific topic [1].”

“The ways in which individuals go about obtaining information regarding their health, health promotion activities, risks, and illness are broadly defined as health information seeking behavior.(1) Acceptance of this learned health information varies among individuals, depending on their perceived trust of the source, c…”

“At one end, information seeking is characterized by an active and motivated pursuit of specific information ( Lambert & Loiselle, 2007 ), as occurs when an individual uses a specific health website to find discussion boards or support programs to cope with cancer-related depression.”

“…Behavior In recent years, health information seeking has come to include a range of dimensions spanning from the nature of information sought, the use of channels to seek information, as well as how various information-seeking strategies are used to obtain information (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007).”

“This kind of information behavior reveals the information seekers’ thoughts and actions in relation to interests, causes, symptoms, advices, and cures that people who suffer from poor health or illness develop [1,14-16].”

“17 19 Niederdeppe et al. 20 defined information seeking as an active effort to obtain specific information on a relevant event.”

“Studies also found that people engage in health information seeking behaviors to cope with health-threatening situations, to gain information to participate in collaborative medical decision making, and to help behavioral change toward healthy lifestyles (for a review, see Lambert & Loiselle, 2007).”

“Health information-seeking is an important part of health behavior (Lambert and Loiselle 2007).”

“Health Information-Seeking Behavior In an analysis of over 100 published articles and books, Lambert and Loiselle determined that HISB is “conceptualized as a means of obtaining the type and amount of information needed to participate in medical decision making” (Lambert & Loiselle, 2007).”