How adolescents seek disease- and fitness-related online health informations?

Our latest study explored how adolescents seek disease- and fitness- related online health information and what roles do perceived trust in online health information, eHealth literacy, and parental factors play. The study was authored by H. Gulec, N. Kvardova and D. Smahel and came out in Computers in Human Behavior!

December 2022 Hayriye Gülec

Adolescents seek health information online. Such searches might involve information about diseases and treatment (e.g., COVID-19) or fitness (e.g., how to exercise). We examined the adolescent and parental factors related to online health information seeking behaviors of adolescents in a recent study and found that:

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adolescents sought online health information more frequently when they evaluated their skills positively to acquire and use online health information (eHealth literacy)

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adolescents were more likely to seek health information online when their parents used the internet frequently for health-related information

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adolescents were more likely to look up online health information when their parents discussed the quality and trustworthiness of online health information with them

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when their parents discussed the quality and trustworthiness of online health information with them, the perceived trustworthiness of online health information was more likely to guide adolescents’ online health information seeking behaviors

Overall, the findings demonstrated eHealth literacy as a crucial component and parents as significant role models in adolescents' online health information seeking behaviors. Addressing parental eHealth literacy skills might be an effective strategy to enhance the eHealth literacy and online health information seeking behaviors of this population.

READ THE FULL STUDY HERE

How to cite this research?

Gulec, H., Kvardova, N., & Smahel, D. (2022). Adolescents' disease- and fitness-related online health information seeking behaviors: The roles of perceived trust in online health information, eHealth literacy, and parental factors. Computers in Human Behavior, 134, 107318: 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107318


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