Journal of Qualitative Research in Health Sciences

Authors

1 Kerman university of medical scienses

2 Tehran university of medical sciences

3 Kerman university of medical sciences

Abstract

Introduction: Equipping individuals with adequate knowledge on health can lead to optimal health outcomes. Scientific reports indicate clients' challenges in trusting and accessing formal health information sources. This study was designed to determine the sources of Iranian women's health information. Method: Study samples were selected through purposive sampling and with regarding to the inclusion criteria. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 17 women and using documentation and field notes until data saturation. Data were analyzed continuously and simultaneous with data collection using qualitative content analysis. Results: The 5 central themes of health care professionals, social networks (with 2 sub-categories of peers and social interactions), culture and religion (with 3 sub-categories of religious teachings, traditional medicine information, and experiences of elders and seniors), mass media (with 3 sub-categories of electronic media, print media, and internet), and self-referencing (with 2 sub-categories of self-discovery-intuition and prior experiences) emerged from data analysis. Conclusion: These findings highlighted the need for respecting the cultural and religious beliefs of a community, and also emphasized on clients' seeking rights, information needs, and empowerment in employment of formal and informal sources.

Keywords

1. Evans-Hudnall GL, Stanley MA, Clark AN, Bush AL, Resnicow K, Liu Y, et al. Improving secondary stroke self-care among underserved ethnic minority individuals: a randomized clinical trial of a pilot intervention. Journal of behavioral medicine. 2014;37 )2:(196-204. 2. Skinner T, Bruce D, Davis T, Davis W. Personality traits, self ‐ care behaviours and glycaemic control in Type 2 diabetes: The Fremantle Diabetes Study Phase II. Diabetic Medicine. 2014;31(4):487- 92. 3. Martínez OJ. [Patients' autonomy and right to the information: from the recognition of rights, to the loss of confidence. Reflections on the new regulation about patients' rights at the end of life]. Cuadernos de bioetica: revista oficial de la Asociacion Espanola de Bioetica y Etica Medica. 2 011 ; 23)77:(151-67. 4. People H. 2020 framework: the vision, mission and goals of Healthy People 2020. US Department of Health. 2012. 5. Radina ME, Ginter AC, Brandt J, Swaney J, Longo DR. Breast cancer patients' use of health information in decision making and coping. Cancer nursing. 2011;34(5):E1-E12. 6. Wang W, Yu N. Coping with a New Health Culture: Acculturation and Online Health Information Seeking Among Chinese Immigrants in the United States. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. 2014:1-9. 7. Earl M, Oelschlegel S, Breece A. Impact of a consumer and patient health information service on user satisfaction, attitudes, and patient-health care professional interactions. Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet. 2012;16(2):192-212. 8. Youash S, Campbell K, Avison W, Peneva D, Sharma V, Xie B. Influence of health information levels on postpartum depression. Archives of women's mental health. 2013;16(6):489-98. 9. Nambisan P. Information seeking and social support in online health communities: impact on patients' perceived empathy. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. 2011;18(3):298- 304. 10. Powell J, Inglis N, Ronnie J, Large S. The characteristics and motivations of online health information seekers: cross-sectional survey and qualitative interview study. Journal of Medical Internet Research. 2011;13(1.( 11. Koch-Weser S, Bradshaw YS, Gualtieri L, Gallagher SS. The Internet as a health information source: findings from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey and implications for health communication. Journal of Health Communication. 2010;15(sup3):279-93. 12. Wang MP, Viswanath K, Lam TH, Wang X, Chan SS. Social determinants of health information seeking among Chinese adults in Hong Kong. PloS one. 2013;8(8):e73049. 13. Le T, Chaudhuri S, White C, Thompson H, Demiris G. Trust in Health Information Sources Differs Between Young/Middle and Oldest Old. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2014;28(4):239- 41. 14. Manganello JA, editor. Media use, health information seeking, and health literacy for adolescents. 141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 2-November 6, 2013); 2013: APHA. 15. Ellis J, Mullan J, Worsley A, Pai N. The role of health literacy and social networks in arthritis patients' health information-seeking behavior: a qualitative study. International journal of family medicine. 2012;2012. 16. Miller LMS, Bell RA. Online Health Information Seeking The Influence of Age, Information Trustworthiness, and Search Challenges. Journal of aging and health. 2 012 ; 24)3:(525-41. 17. Yilmazel G, Akbulut AB, Duman NB. Media Sources for Seeking Health Information in Women. Journal of Communication and Computer. 2013;10:877-81. 18. Grimes HA, Forster DA, Newton MS. Sources of information used by women during pregnancy to meet their information needs. Midwifery. 2014;30(1):e26-e33. 19. Rutten LJF, Arora NK, Bakos AD, Aziz N, Rowland J. Information needs and sources of information among cancer patients: a systematic review of research (1980–2003). Patient education and counseling. 2005;57(3):250-61. 20. Cutilli CC. Seeking health information: what sources do your patients use? Orthopaedic Nursing. 2010;29(3):214. 21. Chan YM. Trust and Health Information Seeking Behavior: Results from the 2012 Health Information National Trends Survey. International Journal of Health Sciences and Research. 2012;2(7):70-8. 22. Percheski C, Hargittai E. Health information-seeking in the digital age. Journal of American College Health. 2011;59(5):379-86. 23. Yi YJ, Stvilia B, Mon L. Cultural influences on seeking quality health information: An exploratory study of the Korean community. Library & Information Science Research. 2012;34(1):45-51. 24. Alishahi-Tabriz A, Sohrabi M-R, Kiapour N, Faramarzi N. Addressing the Changing Sources of Health Information in Iran. International journal of preventive medicine. 2013;4(1):33. 25. Warner D, Procaccino JD. Toward wellness: Women seeking health information. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 2004;55(8):709-3 0. 26. Shieh C, Broome ME, Stump TE. Factors associated with health information-seeking in low- income pregnant women. Women & Health. 2010;50(5):426-42. 27. Reczek C, Umberson D. Gender, health behavior, and intimate relationships: Lesbian, gay, and straight contexts. Social Science & Medicine. 2012;74(11):1783-90. 28. Boudioni M, McPherson K, Moynihan C, Melia J, Boulton M, Leydon G, et al. Do men with prostate or colorectal cancer seek different information and support from women with cancer? British journal of cancer. 2001;85(5):641. 29. Elo S, Kyngäs H. The qualitative content analysis process. Journal of advanced nursing. 2008;62(1):107-15. 30. Hsieh H-F, Shannon SE. Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative health research. 2005 ; 15)9:(1277-88. 31. Pope C, Van Royen P, Baker R. Qualitative methods in research on healthcare quality. Quality and Safety in Health Care. 2002;11(2):148-52. 32. Lincoln YS. Guba, EG (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Beverly Hills. Ca: Sage. 33. Lamyian M, Hydarnia A, Ahmadi F, Faghihzadeh S, Aguilar-Vafaie ME. Barriers to and factors facilitating breast cancer screening among Iranian women: a qualitative study. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal. 2007;13(5):1160-9. 34. Rahman SA, Kielmann T, McPake B, Normand C. Healthcare-seeking behaviour among the tribal people of Bangladesh: Can the current health system really meet their needs? Journal of health, population, and nutrition. 2012;30(3):353. 35. Alpay L, Verhoef J, Xie B, Te'eni D, Zwetsloot-Schonk J. Current challenge in consumer health informatics: Bridging the gap between access to information and information understanding. Biomedical informatics insights. 2009;2(1):1. 36. Maibach EW, Weber D, Massett H, Hancock GR, Price S. Understanding consumers' health information preferences development and validation of a brief screening instrument. Journal of health communication. 2006;11(8):717-36. 37. Stavri PZ. Personal health information-seeking: a qualitative review of the literature. Studies in health technology and informatics. 2001(2):1484-8. 38. Dykes F. A critical ethnographic study of encounters between midwives and breast-feeding women in postnatal wards in England. Midwifery. 2005;21(3):241-52. 39. McCourt C. Supporting choice and control? Communication and interaction between midwives and women at the antenatal booking visit. Social science & medicine. 2006;62(6):1307-18. 40. Faith J. Healthcare processes and the use of online peer-to-peer forums for weight loss information. 2014. 41. Dwyer AA, Quinton R, Morin D, Pitteloud N. Identifying the unmet health needs of patients with congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism using a web-based needs assessment: implications for online interventions and peer-to-peer support. Orphanet journal of rare diseases. 2014;9(1):83. 42. Lloyd-Evans B, Mayo-Wilson E, Harrison B, Istead H, Brown E, Pilling S, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials of peer support for people with severe mental illness. BMC psychiatry. 2014;14(1):39. 43. Fuhr DC, Salisbury TT, De Silva MJ, Atif N, van Ginneken N, Rahman A, et al. Effectiveness of peer-delivered interventions for severe mental illness and depression on clinical and psychosocial outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology. 2014:1-12. 44. Salzer MS, Palmer SC, Kaplan K, Brusilovskiy E, Ten Have T, Hampshire M, et al. A randomized, controlled study of Internet peer ‐ to ‐ peer interactions among women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. Psycho ‐ Oncology. 2010;19(4):441-6. 45. Gholami M, Fallahi Khoshknab M, Seyed Bagher Madah S, Ahmadi F, Khankeh H, Naderi N. Information needs of patients with cardiovascular disease in health information seeking process: A qualitative study. 2 Journal of Nursing Education. [Quantitative-Research]. 2014;2(4):33-49. 46. Pettersson KO, Christensson K, de Freitas EG, Johansson E. Adaptation of health care seeking behavior during childbirth: focus group discussions with women living in the suburban areas of Luanda, Angola. Health Care for Women International. 2004;25(3):255-80. 47. Das A, Sarkar M. Pregnancy-Related Health Information-Seeking Behaviors Among Rural Pregnant Women in India: Validating the Wilson Model in the Indian Context. The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 2014;87(3):251. 48. Lewallen LP. Healthy Behaviors and Sources of Health Information Among Low ‐ Income Pregnant Women. Public Health Nursing. 2004;21(3):200-6. 49. Yee L, Simon M. The role of the social network in contraceptive decision-making among young, African American and Latina women. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2010;47(4):374-80