Classifications, Changes, and Challenges of Online Health Information Seekers during COVID-19

Hanna Choi and Shinae Ahn
Additional contact information
Hanna Choi: Department of Nursing Science, Nambu University, Gwang-ju 62271, Korea
Shinae Ahn: Department of Nursing, Wonkwang University, Iksan 54538, Korea

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 18, 1-11

Abstract: Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore consumers’ experiences before and during the COVID-19 outbreak to improve public health by providing effective consumer health information. Methods: Interviews were conducted with 20 health information consumers who were 18 or older until data saturation was reached. The selected participants were among users of the Korean National Health Insurance Service (NHIS). The data were collected before the COVID-19 outbreak (September 2014) and during the COVID-19 outbreak (October 2020) to describe experiences and changes before and during the pandemic. Data were analyzed according to the qualitative content analysis method. Results: As a result, 3 main domains and 10 subdomains were derived from classifications, changes, and challenges of online health information seekers. Conclusions: The findings of this study guide the understanding of health information seekers for the development of consumer-tailored health information systems.

Keywords: online; health information; eHealth; mHealth; consumer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9495/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9495/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:18:p:9495-:d:631833

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().