Can, Abdullah Buğra Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi, Turkey , Sönmez, Ebru Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi, Turkey , Özer, Ferhad Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi, Turkey , Ayva, Gözde Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi, Turkey , Bacı, Halit Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi, Turkey , Kaya, Hazel Ezgi Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi, Turkey , Uyan, Ozan Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi, Turkey , Ulusoy, Gülnaz Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi - Halk Sağlığı Anabilim Dalı, Turkey , Öğütçü, Nuray Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tıp Fakültesi - Halk Sağlığı Anabilim Dalı, Turkey , Aslan, Dilek Hacettepe Üniversitesi - Tip Fakültesi - Halk Sagligi Anabilim Dali, Turkey

A research on internet use as health seeking behavior

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Aim. In this study, “active” web sites related to health which were selected due to determined criteria have been evaluated in terms of formal, contextual and institutional characteristics. Methods. In this descriptive study, web sites which have been accessed when selected key words on the most frequently seen symptoms of the diseases were entered into the most frequently used search engine in Turkey. Four key words for each symptom were determined like “symptom alone”, symptom and prevention”, “symptom and diagnosis”, “symptom and treatment”. Researchers determined the most frequently seen symptoms of the neural, gastro intestinal, cardiovascular, respiratory, musculo-skeletal, endocrine, urinary, male genital, female genital, skin and lymphatic systems due to the answers of chief residents’ working at a university hospital to the question “Would you kindly say the most frequently seen five symptoms in your daily practice?”. All stated symptoms were listed by the researchers and three of five for each system were selected by random. For each key word, four searches were completed (the key word itself as well as three more searches using; “key word, prevention”, “key word, diagnosis”, “keyword, treatment”. Four different searches were done for each symptom which equals to 12 searches for one system. The first five web sites excluding the web sites used advertisements were investigated for one search. In the end, 60 web sites for each system and 600 web sites for all systems were assessed in the first run of the study. After exclusion of the duplicated sites, 475 web sites were included in the study. SPSS program was used for data entry and analysis. Results. Ninety two percent of the web sites did not include evidence based information. Besides, 40.6% of the current sites did not direct their users to either physicians or health professionals. Sixty five percent nine of the accessed web sites included advertisements. Only 9.7% of the researchers stated their possibility to recommend the web sites to their patients. The advertisement and sponsor relationships influenced their recommendation status. Conclusion. Web sites’ related to health/diseases need improvement (s) in order to be useful for their users in the community independently from commercial expectations.

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Symptom , health seeking behavior , internet

Cumhuriyet Medical Journal

494