Cargando…

Undergraduate Medical Students’ Search for Health Information Online: Explanatory Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Previous research shows that being a “digital native” or growing up in a digital environment does not necessarily lead to increased digital competencies, such as digital health literacy or evaluation of webpage quality. OBJECTIVE: This study showed how medical students searched for healt...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Loda, Teresa, Erschens, Rebecca, Junne, Florian, Stengel, Andreas, Zipfel, Stephan, Herrmann-Werner, Anne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: JMIR Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7076408/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32130146
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/16279
_version_ 1783507209808773120
author Loda, Teresa
Erschens, Rebecca
Junne, Florian
Stengel, Andreas
Zipfel, Stephan
Herrmann-Werner, Anne
author_facet Loda, Teresa
Erschens, Rebecca
Junne, Florian
Stengel, Andreas
Zipfel, Stephan
Herrmann-Werner, Anne
author_sort Loda, Teresa
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Previous research shows that being a “digital native” or growing up in a digital environment does not necessarily lead to increased digital competencies, such as digital health literacy or evaluation of webpage quality. OBJECTIVE: This study showed how medical students searched for health information online, specifically the recommended testing for histamine intolerance, by comparing the use of various search engines (Google, Medisuch, and a website of the student’s choice) to find out more about search strategies in future health professionals. As Medisuch presents a qualitatively better search engine, we assumed that medical students using this search engine might find valid information faster on more reliable webpages, and might recommend the correct diagnostic steps for histamine intolerance to their patients more often than students using a generic search engine like Google. METHODS: Medical students in their third year of study were asked to find the relevant diagnostic steps of histamine intolerance online. They were randomly assigned to use one search engine: Google, their personal choice, or Medisuch. Their process of seeking information online was video recorded. RESULTS: In total, 140 medical students participated in this study. The total number of webpages found did not differ among the groups (P=.52). Students using Medisuch (P=.02) correctly identified the elimination diet as a relevant diagnostic step more frequently. The provocation test was reported by almost half of the students independent of the search engine used. In general, medical students commonly identified trustworthy webpages in all three groups (Google: 36/44, 82%; free choice: 31/36; 86%; and Medisuch: 35/45, 78%). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that medical students were able to find trustworthy health-related information online independent of the search engine used. Medical students that are digital natives seem to have proper internet skills and a knowledge of how to use them. They entered specific medical terms (evidence-based diagnostic steps) or names of reliable webpages (DocCheck) in the search engines to gain correct information. However, it remains to be seen if this behavior can be called true “digital literacy”.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7076408
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher JMIR Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-70764082020-03-25 Undergraduate Medical Students’ Search for Health Information Online: Explanatory Cross-Sectional Study Loda, Teresa Erschens, Rebecca Junne, Florian Stengel, Andreas Zipfel, Stephan Herrmann-Werner, Anne JMIR Med Inform Original Paper BACKGROUND: Previous research shows that being a “digital native” or growing up in a digital environment does not necessarily lead to increased digital competencies, such as digital health literacy or evaluation of webpage quality. OBJECTIVE: This study showed how medical students searched for health information online, specifically the recommended testing for histamine intolerance, by comparing the use of various search engines (Google, Medisuch, and a website of the student’s choice) to find out more about search strategies in future health professionals. As Medisuch presents a qualitatively better search engine, we assumed that medical students using this search engine might find valid information faster on more reliable webpages, and might recommend the correct diagnostic steps for histamine intolerance to their patients more often than students using a generic search engine like Google. METHODS: Medical students in their third year of study were asked to find the relevant diagnostic steps of histamine intolerance online. They were randomly assigned to use one search engine: Google, their personal choice, or Medisuch. Their process of seeking information online was video recorded. RESULTS: In total, 140 medical students participated in this study. The total number of webpages found did not differ among the groups (P=.52). Students using Medisuch (P=.02) correctly identified the elimination diet as a relevant diagnostic step more frequently. The provocation test was reported by almost half of the students independent of the search engine used. In general, medical students commonly identified trustworthy webpages in all three groups (Google: 36/44, 82%; free choice: 31/36; 86%; and Medisuch: 35/45, 78%). CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that medical students were able to find trustworthy health-related information online independent of the search engine used. Medical students that are digital natives seem to have proper internet skills and a knowledge of how to use them. They entered specific medical terms (evidence-based diagnostic steps) or names of reliable webpages (DocCheck) in the search engines to gain correct information. However, it remains to be seen if this behavior can be called true “digital literacy”. JMIR Publications 2020-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC7076408/ /pubmed/32130146 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/16279 Text en ©Teresa Loda, Rebecca Erschens, Florian Junne, Andreas Stengel, Stephan Zipfel, Anne Herrmann-Werner. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 02.03.2020. 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 Medical Informatics, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://medinform.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
spellingShingle Original Paper
Loda, Teresa
Erschens, Rebecca
Junne, Florian
Stengel, Andreas
Zipfel, Stephan
Herrmann-Werner, Anne
Undergraduate Medical Students’ Search for Health Information Online: Explanatory Cross-Sectional Study
title Undergraduate Medical Students’ Search for Health Information Online: Explanatory Cross-Sectional Study
title_full Undergraduate Medical Students’ Search for Health Information Online: Explanatory Cross-Sectional Study
title_fullStr Undergraduate Medical Students’ Search for Health Information Online: Explanatory Cross-Sectional Study
title_full_unstemmed Undergraduate Medical Students’ Search for Health Information Online: Explanatory Cross-Sectional Study
title_short Undergraduate Medical Students’ Search for Health Information Online: Explanatory Cross-Sectional Study
title_sort undergraduate medical students’ search for health information online: explanatory cross-sectional study
topic Original Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7076408/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32130146
http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/16279
work_keys_str_mv AT lodateresa undergraduatemedicalstudentssearchforhealthinformationonlineexplanatorycrosssectionalstudy
AT erschensrebecca undergraduatemedicalstudentssearchforhealthinformationonlineexplanatorycrosssectionalstudy
AT junneflorian undergraduatemedicalstudentssearchforhealthinformationonlineexplanatorycrosssectionalstudy
AT stengelandreas undergraduatemedicalstudentssearchforhealthinformationonlineexplanatorycrosssectionalstudy
AT zipfelstephan undergraduatemedicalstudentssearchforhealthinformationonlineexplanatorycrosssectionalstudy
AT herrmannwerneranne undergraduatemedicalstudentssearchforhealthinformationonlineexplanatorycrosssectionalstudy