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E-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVE: Internet plays a huge role in providing information about health care problems. However, it is unknown how parents use and perceive the internet as a source of information and how this influences health care utilisation when it comes to common complaints in infants. The objective was to e...

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Autores principales: van der Gugten, Anne C., de Leeuw, Rob J. R. J., Verheij, Theo J.M., van der Ent, Cornelis K., Kars, Marijke C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Taylor & Francis 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4977935/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27063729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/02813432.2016.1160627
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author van der Gugten, Anne C.
de Leeuw, Rob J. R. J.
Verheij, Theo J.M.
van der Ent, Cornelis K.
Kars, Marijke C.
author_facet van der Gugten, Anne C.
de Leeuw, Rob J. R. J.
Verheij, Theo J.M.
van der Ent, Cornelis K.
Kars, Marijke C.
author_sort van der Gugten, Anne C.
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE: Internet plays a huge role in providing information about health care problems. However, it is unknown how parents use and perceive the internet as a source of information and how this influences health care utilisation when it comes to common complaints in infants. The objective was to evaluate the perception parents have on the role of internet in providing health care information on common symptoms in infants and its effects on health care utilisation. DESIGN: A qualitative design was chosen. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: Parents were recruited from a population-based birth-cohort and selected purposefully. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Semi-structured interviews were used to receive information of parentsʼ ideas. Thematic coding and constant comparison were used for interview transcript analysis. RESULTS: Ten parents were interviewed. Parents felt anxious and responsible when their child displayed common symptoms, and appeared to be in need of information. They tried to obtain information from relatives, but more so from the internet, because of its accessibility. Nevertheless, information found on the internet had several limitations, evoked new doubts and insecurity and although parents compared information from multiple sources, only the physician was able to take away the insecurity. The internet did not interfere in the decision to consult the physician. CONCLUSIONS: KEY POINTS: Internet plays an increasing role in providing health care information but it is unknown how this influences health care utilisation. Our study suggests that: Parents need information about their children’s symptoms and the internet is a major resource. However, only physicians could take away their symptom-related doubts and insecurities. Internet information did not play a role in parental decision making.
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spelling pubmed-49779352016-08-25 E-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study van der Gugten, Anne C. de Leeuw, Rob J. R. J. Verheij, Theo J.M. van der Ent, Cornelis K. Kars, Marijke C. Scand J Prim Health Care Research Article OBJECTIVE: Internet plays a huge role in providing information about health care problems. However, it is unknown how parents use and perceive the internet as a source of information and how this influences health care utilisation when it comes to common complaints in infants. The objective was to evaluate the perception parents have on the role of internet in providing health care information on common symptoms in infants and its effects on health care utilisation. DESIGN: A qualitative design was chosen. SETTING AND SUBJECTS: Parents were recruited from a population-based birth-cohort and selected purposefully. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Semi-structured interviews were used to receive information of parentsʼ ideas. Thematic coding and constant comparison were used for interview transcript analysis. RESULTS: Ten parents were interviewed. Parents felt anxious and responsible when their child displayed common symptoms, and appeared to be in need of information. They tried to obtain information from relatives, but more so from the internet, because of its accessibility. Nevertheless, information found on the internet had several limitations, evoked new doubts and insecurity and although parents compared information from multiple sources, only the physician was able to take away the insecurity. The internet did not interfere in the decision to consult the physician. CONCLUSIONS: KEY POINTS: Internet plays an increasing role in providing health care information but it is unknown how this influences health care utilisation. Our study suggests that: Parents need information about their children’s symptoms and the internet is a major resource. However, only physicians could take away their symptom-related doubts and insecurities. Internet information did not play a role in parental decision making. Taylor & Francis 2016-04-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4977935/ /pubmed/27063729 http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/02813432.2016.1160627 Text en © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
van der Gugten, Anne C.
de Leeuw, Rob J. R. J.
Verheij, Theo J.M.
van der Ent, Cornelis K.
Kars, Marijke C.
E-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study
title E-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study
title_full E-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study
title_fullStr E-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study
title_full_unstemmed E-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study
title_short E-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study
title_sort e-health and health care behaviour of parents of young children: a qualitative study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4977935/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27063729
http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/02813432.2016.1160627
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