In the recent past, people were used to consult health care professionals or textbooks in order to find answer to health related questions. Now, the availability of medical information through electronic resources has changed people&lsquo / s information-seeking behaviors and, as a result, electronic information resources have become very popular and frequently used for health related searches. This study examines the online health information-seeking behaviors of middle aged and older people from Middle East Technical University and 100. Yil neighbourhood, specially demographic and other factors effecting online health information seeking, the types of sought online health information, assessment of the online health information, and reliability criteria of middle aged and older online health information seekers. A cross-sectional design was used to collect data. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to participants. The final sample was 248 middle aged and older people. Findings show that middle aged and older employees from Middle East Technical University and 100. Yil neighbourhood are searching for health information especially for specific illnesses. They are using this information to self-treat or self-diagnose. Worse health conditions, expertise level in internet usage associates with searching behavior. Majority of the participants trust in information they found online but they do not share it with any health care professional.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612346/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 February 2010 |
| Creators | Cakir Turgut, Elif |
| Contributors | Baykal, Nazife |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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