Background: Many physicians encounter clinical questions in their practice. However, many of these questions are left unanswered due to various reasons. Objective: The study aimed to determine the information needs and information-seeking behavior among resident physicians in a tertiary hospital in Iloilo City. Methods: The study used a cross-sectional study design. The fifty-seven resident physicians of the different residency training programs of Iloilo Mission Hospital answered a twenty-minute self-administered questionnaire on May 2019. Data entry, descriptive statistics, and correlational analysis were done using Microsoft Excel version 1905 and SPSS version 26. Pearson chi square and Gamma tests at alpha level 0.05 were used to assess the association between variables. Results: Majority (80.7%) of resident physicians needed access to health information resource to answer their daily clinical queries. Respondents have an average of 4.7 questions per patient per meeting. They successfully answered 60.9% of questions encountered. Their preferred information resources were fellow residents, online journals, Medscape, consultants, and Google. The top three barriers to information seeking are lack of time, forgetting the question, and difficulty in finding answers in selected health resource. All respondents exhibit a positive attitude towards pursuing evidence-based answers. There is no relationship between age, gender, specialty, and attitude towards pursuing answers. Conclusions The resident physicians of Iloilo Mission Hospital pursued and answered 60.9 % of questions encountered in clinical practice. The respondents believed that using health information resources can improve patient care and update one’s medical knowledge.
Information Seeking Behavior ; Information Sources

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore uncertainty, depression, and anxiety in isolated inpatients and to identify associations between them, with specific focus on state anxiety. METHODS: Data were collected using structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, administered to isolated inpatients at an acute care hospital (N=92). The structured questionnaires consisted of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Mishel Uncertainty in Illness Scale, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Multiple linear regression and content analysis were conducted. RESULTS: Isolated inpatients showed significant differences in uncertainty, depression, trait anxiety, and state anxiety according to gender, perception of sufficient information about isolation, and the type of isolation. State anxiety scores increased when sufficient information about isolation was not provided (β=.23, p=.005), with higher levels of depression (β=.24, p=.020) and trait anxiety (β=.49, p<.001). Through the content analysis, three themes were identified regarding patient's information needs about isolation specifically for disease, explanation, and environment. CONCLUSION: Based on the findings, it is crucial to improve the awareness of emotional responses of isolated patients experiencing uncertainty, depression, and anxiety. Our study findings are expected to support the development of nursing interventions to provide proper information and mental health support when caring for isolated inpatients.
Anxiety ; Depression ; Epidemiologic Studies ; Humans ; Information Seeking Behavior ; Inpatients ; Linear Models ; Mental Health ; Nursing ; Patient Isolation ; Uncertainty

Objective To investigate the demand for scientific information among cervical cancer patients and to evaluate the quality of the relevant information available for these patients.Methods The demand for medical science information among patients with cervical cancer was investigated via questionnaire.The Discernn scoring system was used to score the cervical cancer science articles retrieved by Baidu and Sogou.A model was established to analyse the reading difficulty of these articles.Results Nearly half(53.6%)of the respondents searched for online science information at least weekly.The main target readings were the etiology and risk factors of diseases,symptoms,treatment options,adverse reactions of treatments,and prognosis.Most respondents(96.4%)thought that the network science information was reliable.Of the 104 search results included in the sample bank,13(12.5%)met the inclusion criteria,91(87.5%)were not selected,including 32 duplicates(30.8%),6 non-text webpages(5.8%),18 short texts(less than 300 Chinese characters)(17.3%),7 advertisements(6.7%),3 news articles(2.9%),22 forum posts(21.2%),and 3 academic articles(2.9%).According to the Discern scoring system,the reliability(=0.728, <0.001),the quality of treatment-related information(=0.431, <0.001),and the overall scores(=0.559,<0.001)of the enrolled 13 publications were consistent,as evaluated by two professional physicians.The mean overall score was 3.A lower score(less than 3)in the reliability assessment was due to the source of the content,generation methods,sponsors,citations,and the undefined parts.During the evaluation of treatment information,the average score was below 3 for each item.Analysis of the reading difficulty showed that,among these 13 articles,4 were at postgraduate thesis level(level 5),4 at undergraduate thesis level(level 4),0 at high school textbook level(level 3),and 8 was higher than middle school level(≥level 3).Eight articles(61.5%)were suitable for readers with an education background of higher middle school and only 5 articles(38.5%)were suitable for readers with an education background of middle school or lower(≤ level 2).Conclusions The vast majority of patients with cervical cancer search for clinical information through the Internet and trust their reliability.Chinese search engines have lower detection rates for high-quality medical science articles.The currently available high-quality medical science articles are small in number and difficult to read.More physicians are urged to write easy-to-read high-quality articles for these patients.
Female ; Health Services Needs and Demand ; Humans ; Information Seeking Behavior ; Internet ; Reproducibility of Results ; Search Engine ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine (1) the patterns of online health information search with respect to seeking and scanning, and (2) how online search, along with eHealth literacy, predicts perceived information usefulness in the context of diet and weight control. METHODS: Online survey was conducted with 299 adults from the consumer panel recruited for the purpose of quality assessment of the Korean National Health Information Portal in 2016. We conducted paired sample t-test and multiple logistic regression to address the research questions. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics ver. 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and SAS ver. 9.3 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). RESULTS: Of the respondents, 38.8% were ‘high seek-high scanners,’ 35.8% were ‘low seek-low scanners,’ 13.0% were ‘high seek-low scanners,’ and 12.4% were ‘low seek-high scanners.’ eHealth literacy was a significant, positive predictor of online information scanning (odds ratio [OR], 2.46; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.41–4.29), but not for online information seeking (OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.00–3.05). With respect to perceived usefulness of online information seeking, online seeking (OR, 4.90; 95% CI, 2.19–11.00) and eHealth literacy (OR, 2.30; 95% CI, 1.11–4.75) were significant predictors. Perceived usefulness of online scanning had a significant association with online scanning (OR, 2.38; 95% CI, 1.08–5.22), but not with eHealth literacy. CONCLUSION: To increase the effectiveness of the health policy for online information search and related outcomes in the context of diet and weight control, it is important to develop education programs promoting eHealth literacy.
Adult ; Diet ; Education ; Health Policy ; Humans ; Information Seeking Behavior ; Literacy ; Logistic Models ; Statistics as Topic ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Telemedicine ; Weight Loss

BACKGROUND: Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) should be relatively well informed about the disorder to control their condition and prevent flare-ups. Thus far, there is no accurate information about the disease awareness levels and therapeutic behavior of AD patients. OBJECTIVE: To collect data on patients' knowledge about AD and their behavior in relation to seeking information about the disease and its treatment. METHODS: We performed a questionnaire survey on the disease awareness and self-management behavior of AD patients. A total of 313 patients and parents of patients with AD who had visited the The Catholic University of Korea, Catholic Medical Center between November 2011 and October 2012 were recruited. We compared the percentage of correct answers from all collected questionnaires according to the demographic and disease characteristics of the patients. RESULTS: Although dermatologists were the most frequent disease information sources and treatment providers for the AD patients, a significant proportion of participants obtained information from the Internet, which carries a huge amount of false medical information. A considerable number of participants perceived false online information as genuine, especially concerning complementary and alternative medicine treatments of AD, and the adverse effects of steroids. Some questions on AD knowledge had significantly different answers according to sex, marriage status, educational level, type of residence and living area, disease duration, disease severity, and treatment history with dermatologists. CONCLUSION: Dermatologists should pay more attention to correcting the common misunderstandings about AD to reduce unnecessary social/economic losses and improve treatment compliance.
Complementary Therapies ; Compliance ; Dermatitis ; Dermatitis, Atopic* ; Disease Management ; Educational Status ; Humans ; Information Seeking Behavior ; Internet ; Korea ; Marriage ; Parents ; Self Care ; Steroids ; Surveys and Questionnaires