Information seeking behaviour of parents and caregivers of children with mental illness in Tanzania

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to assess information needs and information seeking behaviour of parents and caregivers of children with mental illness at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) in Tanzania. The study mainly assessed the information needs of parents and caregivers of children with mental illness, their preferable sources of health information, and their constraints on information seeking. Design/methodology/approach – This study used a case study research design, where 168 structured questionnaires were distributed to parents and caregivers of children with mental illness at the Neurological Pediatrics Outpatient Clinic of KCMC. The rate of response was 89.3 per cent. Findings – The study found that health information needs of parents and caregivers were mainly associated with health care (for example, nutrition, treatment) and health education. Parents and caregivers of children with mental illness used the internet as the main source of information about their children's heal...

[1]  D. Skinner,et al.  How Parents Search, Interpret, and Evaluate Genetic Information Obtained from the Internet , 2009, Journal of Genetic Counseling.

[2]  Khalid M. AlGhamdi,et al.  Internet use by the public to search for health-related information , 2012, Int. J. Medical Informatics.

[3]  Chris Watts,et al.  Access to Electronic Healthcare Information Resources in Developing Countries: experiences from the Medical Library, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria , 2006 .

[4]  D. Longo,et al.  Understanding breast-cancer patients' perceptions: Health information-seeking behaviour and passive information receipt , 2009 .

[5]  R. Meyer,et al.  Patterns of family followup: A study of children with mental retardation and associated developmental disorders , 1970, Community Mental Health Journal.

[6]  Mack T Ruffin,et al.  Information Technology and Cancer Prevention , 2006, CA: a cancer journal for clinicians.

[7]  C. McPherson,et al.  Effective methods of giving information in cancer: a systematic literature review of randomized controlled trials. , 2001, Journal of public health medicine.

[8]  Health Information needs and health information seeking behavior among small farmers at Kilimanjaro Region - Tanzania. , 2012 .

[9]  Margaret M. Barry,et al.  A literature review on health information-seeking behaviour on the web: a health consumer and health , 2011 .

[10]  Joseph Sharit,et al.  Older Adults and Internet Health Information Seeking , 2009 .

[11]  Ngoakoana Emma Pilusa.  The impact of mental retardation on family functioning , 2008 .

[12]  J. Kai,et al.  Parents' difficulties and information needs in coping with acute illness in preschool children: a qualitative study , 1996, BMJ.

[13]  Michele L. Ybarra,et al.  Health information seeking among Mbararan adolescents: results from the Uganda Media and You survey. , 2007, Health education research.

[14]  J. Ikoja-Odongo,et al.  Information seeking behaviour : a conceptual framework , 2013 .

[15]  Rachel Jenkins,et al.  Common Mental Disorders and Risk Factors in Urban Tanzania , 2010, International journal of environmental research and public health.

[16]  Alda Hummelinck,et al.  Parents' information needs about the treatment of their chronically ill child: a qualitative study. , 2006, Patient education and counseling.

[17]  Lisl Zach,et al.  Assessing internet access and use in a medically underserved population: implications for providing enhanced health information services. , 2012, Health information and libraries journal.

[18]  C. Dube,et al.  Untangling the Web--the impact of Internet use on health care and the physician-patient relationship. , 2007, Patient education and counseling.

[19]  Amber M. Reinhart,et al.  Health information seeking: a review of measures and methods. , 2011, Patient education and counseling.

[20]  Kristian Daneback,et al.  Parenthood, information and support on the internet. A literature review of research on parents and professionals online , 2009, BMC family practice.

[21]  Carole A Gassert,et al.  Online health information use by participants in selected senior centres in Korea: current status of internet access and health information use by Korean older adults. , 2011, International journal of older people nursing.

[22]  J. D. Johnson.  Cancer-Related Information Seeking , 1997 .

[23]  Anthony F Jorm,et al.  The quality of mental disorder information websites: a review. , 2011, Patient education and counseling.

[24]  R. Jackson,et al.  Qualitative analysis of parents' information needs and psychosocial experiences when supporting children with health care needs. , 2008, Health information and libraries journal.

[25]  S. Schug,et al.  A survey of patients' use of the internet for chronic pain-related information. , 2010, Pain medicine.

[26]  A. Worth,et al.  Discharged from hospital: should more responsibility for meeting patients' and carers' information needs now be shouldered in the community? , 2000, Health & social care in the community.

[27]  F. Babl,et al.  Health information seeking by parents in the Internet age , 2008, Journal of paediatrics and child health.

[28]  Giuseppe La Torre,et al.  Surfing the internet for health information: an italian survey on use and population choices , 2011, BMC Medical Informatics Decis. Mak..

[29]  K. Schmidt,et al.  The patient's perspective , 2003, Supportive Care in Cancer.

[30]  D. Ocholla,et al.  Information seeking behaviour of orphans and vulnerable children, caregivers, and the role of service providers in Ohangwena and Khomas regions in Namibia. A preliminary report 1 . , 2011 .

[31]  T. D. Wilson,et al.  Information behaviour: an interdisciplinary perspective , 1997, Inf. Process. Manag..

[32]  Christopher E. Beaudoin,et al.  Health information seeking, diet and physical activity: An empirical assessment by medium and critical demographics , 2011, Int. J. Medical Informatics.

[33]  Louis Leung.  Internet Embeddedness: Links with Online Health Information Seeking, Expectancy Value/Quality of Health Information Websites, and Internet Usage Patterns , 2008, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[34]  E. Lwoga,et al.  Information seeking behaviour of physicians in Tanzania , 2013 .