Health information seeking: a review of measures and methods

Objective: Outlines the methods and measures commonly used to study active health information seeking and prescribes important considerations in advancing the study of patient information seeking.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature from 1978 to 2010. A single bibliometric database, PsychInfo, identified 648 articles of health information seeking. The 129 articles included in the review were coded by type of sample, measures (n=12) utilized to study health information seeking, and types of study methods (n=5).

Results: A majority of studies used non-clinical samples and measured general health information seeking (i.e., whether the participant engaged in a search for health information) through cross-sectional study designs.

Conclusions: There are varying samples, measures, and designs used to identify those who do or do not seek health information. Future research should look into how health information seeking influences health management and should uncover the social and relational functions of health information seeking using more advanced (and less routinely applied) measures and methods of studying health information seeking.

Practice implications: More people are actively searching for health information and health providers should address this in their discussions with patients.