Research On The Behavior Of College Students' Network Health Information Search And Its Influencing Factors

WHO pointed out that information is the necessary way to stay healthy.Since the popularization of the Internet,the number of online health information seekers has increased significantly.Nowadays,online information resources contain many forms of health-related information.However,the quality of health information which carried by various information channels varies greatly.College students use the Internet resources frequently but their judgments are still poor.The subjects of this study are college students,including undergraduates,postgraduates and doctoral students.Based on information seeking behavior theory and the influencing factors concluded from literatures,it is hoped that the characteristics of the online health information seeking behavior and its influencing factors can be obtained as the basis for the service of the academic libraries,which could guide the students to choose the reliable health information prudently.Firstly,we used content analysis method to sort out the related domestic and foreign research results of health information seeking behavior.Based on the classification of research variables,we made an outline of the interview and prepared for the questionnaire design.Secondly,the interview was conducted to investigate the students' cognition of health information,the contents,websites they search for and influencing factors of their behavior.The data was analyzed by NVI VO,and the influencing factors scale was constructed based on the variable classification of the literature review.Thirdly we used the questionnaire method and carried out descriptive analysis of college students' health information seeking behavior.This study also concludes the dimensions in influencing factors of the health information seeking behavior.The conclusions are as followed.Firstly,the behavior characteristics of college students' online health information seeking are the diversity of search contents and the limited choices of media,etc.Secondly,the influencing factors include two dimensions which are user's characteristic and interactive characteristic.Thirdly,information resources management of government,guidance of academic libraries and self-improvement on ehealth literacy by students are three recommendations.