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Web-Based Health Information Seeking Among Students at Kuwait University: Cross-Sectional Survey Study

BACKGROUND: Owing to the revolution in technology, the internet has become an important aspect of people’s lives. Modern technology is enabling people from diverse educational backgrounds to use the internet for several purposes, one of which is health information seeking. Recently, Web-based health...

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Autores principales: Ashkanani, Hasan, Asery, Rabab, Bokubar, Fajer, AlAli, Noor, Mubarak, Shahad, Buabbas, Ali, Almajran, Abdullah
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6914278/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31473592
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/14327
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author Ashkanani, Hasan
Asery, Rabab
Bokubar, Fajer
AlAli, Noor
Mubarak, Shahad
Buabbas, Ali
Almajran, Abdullah
author_facet Ashkanani, Hasan
Asery, Rabab
Bokubar, Fajer
AlAli, Noor
Mubarak, Shahad
Buabbas, Ali
Almajran, Abdullah
author_sort Ashkanani, Hasan
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Owing to the revolution in technology, the internet has become an important aspect of people’s lives. Modern technology is enabling people from diverse educational backgrounds to use the internet for several purposes, one of which is health information seeking. Recently, Web-based health information has become more popular among patients all over the world and among the general public. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the use of Web-based health resources among undergraduate students from different faculties at Kuwait University. METHODS: The study employed a cross-sectional design with students selected from 8 faculties of Kuwait University, 4 faculties of Literature and 4 faculties of Science. Data were collected using structured questionnaires, and analysis was done using a chi-square test and binary logistic regression to determine the factors associated with seeking health information on the Web. RESULTS: The sample size obtained was 1132 with a response rate of 90.27% (1132/1254). Overall, the prevalence of students seeking Web-based health information was 92.66%. (1049/1132) The most significant factors associated with seeking health information on the Web were age, gender, faculty, year of study, primary source of internet, and level of experience with internet use. In total, 90.0% (325/361) of students who were aged older than 21 years used Web-based health information compared with 82.8% (275/332) of those who were aged 18 years. In addition, female students showed a higher prevalence (829/934, 88.8%) of Web-based health information seeking than males (210/270, 77.8%). Students who majored in faculties of Science were more likely to seek health information than those who majored in faculties of Literature. All the differences found in the study were statistically significant (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: The study concluded that many people use the internet for seeking health information. Sociodemographic factors have a significant association with Web-based health information seeking. Therefore, doctors must educate the public about the health information websites that can be trusted.
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spelling pubmed-69142782020-01-06 Web-Based Health Information Seeking Among Students at Kuwait University: Cross-Sectional Survey Study Ashkanani, Hasan Asery, Rabab Bokubar, Fajer AlAli, Noor Mubarak, Shahad Buabbas, Ali Almajran, Abdullah JMIR Form Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: Owing to the revolution in technology, the internet has become an important aspect of people’s lives. Modern technology is enabling people from diverse educational backgrounds to use the internet for several purposes, one of which is health information seeking. Recently, Web-based health information has become more popular among patients all over the world and among the general public. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the use of Web-based health resources among undergraduate students from different faculties at Kuwait University. METHODS: The study employed a cross-sectional design with students selected from 8 faculties of Kuwait University, 4 faculties of Literature and 4 faculties of Science. Data were collected using structured questionnaires, and analysis was done using a chi-square test and binary logistic regression to determine the factors associated with seeking health information on the Web. RESULTS: The sample size obtained was 1132 with a response rate of 90.27% (1132/1254). Overall, the prevalence of students seeking Web-based health information was 92.66%. (1049/1132) The most significant factors associated with seeking health information on the Web were age, gender, faculty, year of study, primary source of internet, and level of experience with internet use. In total, 90.0% (325/361) of students who were aged older than 21 years used Web-based health information compared with 82.8% (275/332) of those who were aged 18 years. In addition, female students showed a higher prevalence (829/934, 88.8%) of Web-based health information seeking than males (210/270, 77.8%). Students who majored in faculties of Science were more likely to seek health information than those who majored in faculties of Literature. All the differences found in the study were statistically significant (P<.05). CONCLUSIONS: The study concluded that many people use the internet for seeking health information. Sociodemographic factors have a significant association with Web-based health information seeking. Therefore, doctors must educate the public about the health information websites that can be trusted. JMIR Publications 2019-10-31 /pmc/articles/PMC6914278/ /pubmed/31473592 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/14327 Text en ©Hasan Ashkanani, Rabab Asery, Fajer Bokubar, Noor AlAli, Shahad Mubarak, Ali Buabbas, Abdullah Almajran. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (http://formative.jmir.org), 31.10.2019. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Formative Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://formative.jmir.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Ashkanani, Hasan
Asery, Rabab
Bokubar, Fajer
AlAli, Noor
Mubarak, Shahad
Buabbas, Ali
Almajran, Abdullah
Web-Based Health Information Seeking Among Students at Kuwait University: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title Web-Based Health Information Seeking Among Students at Kuwait University: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_full Web-Based Health Information Seeking Among Students at Kuwait University: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_fullStr Web-Based Health Information Seeking Among Students at Kuwait University: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_full_unstemmed Web-Based Health Information Seeking Among Students at Kuwait University: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_short Web-Based Health Information Seeking Among Students at Kuwait University: Cross-Sectional Survey Study
title_sort web-based health information seeking among students at kuwait university: cross-sectional survey study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6914278/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31473592
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/14327
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