Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Online Health Information Seeking Behaviour: Understanding Different Search Approaches

Proceedings article published in 2014 by Shanton Chang ORCID, Patrick Cheong-Iao Pang, Jon M. Pearce, Karin Verspoor
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Question mark in circle
Preprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Postprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Published version: policy unknown

Abstract

People intuitively use search engines to look for health information. However, people take an exploratory search approach to find the information in some scenarios, and current search engines do not support these cases well. This exploratory information seeking behaviour is rarely investigated by researchers in the context of online consumer health information. We report on a qualitative study to conceptualise the health information seeking behaviour of lay-people. This paper describes the result of this study, and makes a contribution towards a conceptual understanding of search approaches by people seeking health information, search strategies used by health information seekers, and design implications for providing a better exploratory health search experience.