TY - JOUR
T1 - How and why young adults do and do not search for health information
T2 - Cognitive and affective factors
AU - Myrick, Jessica Gall
AU - Willoughby, Jessica Fitts
AU - Verghese, Roshni Susana
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Health Education Journal.
PY - 2016/3/1
Y1 - 2016/3/1
N2 - Objective: The goal of this study was to take an in-depth look at why college students do (or do not) seek health information, and how they seek information when they do. Design: Qualitative content analysis of responses to an open-ended prompt embedded in a survey about health information seeking behaviours. Setting: Nearly 700 (N=697) college students at a public university in the Southeastern USA responded to an open-ended prompt to discuss health information seeking. Method: Two coders used constant-comparative method to identify themes within the data set. Results: Students in the sample were motivated to seek health information by personal relevance, emotions, identity and media coverage. When they did seek such information, they relied heavily on the Internet. Many respondents reported not seeking health information due to perceptions of low personal risk, third person perceptions that they knew more than others and/or a fatalistic view of their future health. Conclusion: College students seek health information largely based on perceptions of relevance. Health professionals wanting to motivate this population to educate themselves about health issues may wish to focus on making relevance salient as well as understanding both cognitive and affective motivations to seek or avoid seeking.
AB - Objective: The goal of this study was to take an in-depth look at why college students do (or do not) seek health information, and how they seek information when they do. Design: Qualitative content analysis of responses to an open-ended prompt embedded in a survey about health information seeking behaviours. Setting: Nearly 700 (N=697) college students at a public university in the Southeastern USA responded to an open-ended prompt to discuss health information seeking. Method: Two coders used constant-comparative method to identify themes within the data set. Results: Students in the sample were motivated to seek health information by personal relevance, emotions, identity and media coverage. When they did seek such information, they relied heavily on the Internet. Many respondents reported not seeking health information due to perceptions of low personal risk, third person perceptions that they knew more than others and/or a fatalistic view of their future health. Conclusion: College students seek health information largely based on perceptions of relevance. Health professionals wanting to motivate this population to educate themselves about health issues may wish to focus on making relevance salient as well as understanding both cognitive and affective motivations to seek or avoid seeking.
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U2 - 10.1177/0017896915571764
DO - 10.1177/0017896915571764
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84959322236
SN - 0017-8969
VL - 75
SP - 208
EP - 219
JO - Health Education Journal
JF - Health Education Journal
IS - 2
ER -