Women Seeking Health Information: Distinguishing the Web User

Given the advantages of using the Web for health information-seeking and a survey result that women are more likely to use the Web as a channel to locate health information, the authors explored the health information-seeking process and behavior of women who use the Web to seek such information. Although based on previously collected data, this article represents an extension of the earlier analysis with its focus on women who, at least to some extent, seek health care information via The Web (herein, Web user), a topic not thoroughly addressed in the earlier study. A comparison of female Web users and non-Web users who seek health information revealed that Web users sought health information at a higher rate than non-Web users. Web users were more likely to communicate with medical professionals about the health information found and claimed that their decisions about health treatments were influenced by the health information. In most cases, Web users expressed a higher awareness of resources, regardless of format. Web users did not report that finding health information, from any channel, however, was noticeably easier.

[1]  R. Kravitz,et al.  Health information on the Internet: accessibility, quality, and readability in English and Spanish. , 2001, JAMA.

[2]  F H Navarro,et al.  A new perspective on consumer health Web use: "valuegraphic" profiles of health information seekers. , 2001, Managed care quarterly.

[3]  Mary L. Gillaspy,et al.  Starting a Consumer Health Information Service in a Public Library , 2000 .

[4]  Blythe McVicker Clinchy,et al.  Women s ways of knowing: The development of self , 1988 .

[5]  Patricia E. Whelehan.  Women and Health: Cross-Cultural Perspectives , 1988 .

[6]  S. Cotten,et al.  Characteristics of online and offline health information seekers and factors that discriminate between them. , 2004, Social science & medicine.

[7]  Wilkins St,et al.  A new perspective on consumer health Web use: "valuegraphic" profiles of health information seekers. , 2001 .

[8]  M. Belenky,et al.  Women's ways of knowing : the development of self, voice, and mind , 1988 .

[9]  M. Islam.  Women, health and culture. , 1985, Health care for women international.

[10]  Mary L. Gillaspy,et al.  Factors Affecting the Provision of Consumer Health Information in Public Libraries: The Last Five Years , 2005, Libr. Trends.

[11]  Yin Yang,et al.  A study of medical and health queries to web search engines. , 2004, Health information and libraries journal.

[12]  Mortimer J. Adler,et al.  How to Read a Book , 1940 .

[13]  Iwan G. J. H. Wopereis,et al.  Differences between novice and experienced users in searching information on the World Wide Web , 2000, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[14]  Alladi Venkatesh,et al.  Has the Internet become indispensable? , 2004, CACM.

[15]  R. Hu.  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) , 2003 .

[16]  R. Apple,et al.  Women, health, and medicine in America : a historical handbook , 1994 .

[17]  J. Drew Procaccino,et al.  Toward wellness: Women seeking health information , 2004, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[18]  N. Calabretta.  Consumer-driven, patient-centered health care in the age of electronic information. , 2002, Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA.

[19]  P. Ullrich,et al.  Patient education on the internet: opportunities and pitfalls. , 2002, Spine.

[20]  Hsinchun Chen,et al.  HelpfulMed: Intelligent Searching for Medical Informationover the Internet , 2003 .

[21]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  Influences, usage, and outcomes of Internet health information searching: Multivariate results from the Pew surveys , 2006, Int. J. Medical Informatics.

[22]  D. Goldmann,et al.  American College of Physicians complete home medical guide , 1999 .

[23]  Joanne R. Lupton,et al.  Nutrition and Your Health Dietary Guidelines for Americans , 1980, Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

[24]  Susan Dunman,et al.  Seeking meaning: A process approach to library and information services , 1996 .

[25]  P. Zoë Stavri,et al.  Personal Health Information-Seeking: A Qualitative Review of the Literature , 2001, MedInfo.

[26]  M. Klein-Fedyshin,et al.  Consumer Health Informatics-Integrating Patients, Providers, and Professionals Online , 2002, Medical reference services quarterly.