Health Information Seeking for a Disease Epidemic: A Case Study of Kermanshah Citizens in the Covid 19

 The importance of information varies depending on the need for it and the situation in which one lives, and sometimes becomes of critical value. The concept of health and health literacy are concepts that relate to health and its domains and affect one's ability to act on health information and to better control personal, family, and community health, and thus not only an individual but also an individual characteristic. It is considered as a key determinant of community health. The outbreak of coronavirus and Covid 19 in late 2019 prompted the World Health Organization to declare an epidemic, and the need for accurate and accurate information to combat the virus and the disease became a serious need, with many at hand they searched for news and information about the disease and ways to prevent or treat it. In view of the above, the present study seeks to explore the ways and channels of information and news related to Covid disease among Kermanshah citizens.

 This study was descriptive, descriptive, and applied in terms of purpose. Survey method was used and data were collected using a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by a number of masters and PhDs. The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.81). The population of this study should have included all citizens of Kermanshah if it were conducted under normal circumstances, but given that the present study was conducted in a situation of crisis and isolation epidemic, it was not possible to reach all citizens equally and equitably; Since the questionnaire could not be distributed, the questionnaire was distributed electronically through two groups and a telegram channel to 29812 citizens of Kermanshah and all were asked to answer the questionnaire. , Participate in research. The sample size required was 377 according to Morgan's chart and simple random sampling. The questionnaire was sent to the mentioned groups and channels on 27/12/1398 and by the 6/6/1399 377 people participated in the study. Data were analyzed by SPSS software (version 22) at both descriptive and inferential levels.

 Citizens of Kermanshah also relied on public messengers such as Telegram and WhatsApp as well as social networking sites such as Instagram and Twitter for information on Covid 19 related health. The average score of these two sources indicates that Kermanshah citizens are heavily using these two tools to inform Covid 19. However, the difference between the components of meaningful cyberspace and standard deviation score indicated a high diversity and distribution of responses. Findings from a doctors questioning to find out about Coronavirus and Covid 19 showed that public doctors were more frequently referred, both in face to face and indirectly by telephone or social media. But overall, the mean score indicated that referral rates to doctors were below average.

 For Kermanshah citizens, awareness of disease symptoms as well as prevention methods of Covid 19 were prioritized to health information, meaning that awareness of symptoms and ways of disease prevention was more than other motivations and goals. They were interested. This is especially true for those who have not yet had the disease, and perhaps if the patients had access to and participation in the research, follow-up goals such as information seeking through treatment would have been more prominent. The overwhelming use of media by respondents to obtain health information at the time of the outbreak of the Corona virus can be justified from two angles. The first type is the tool and its resources and features and the second is the type of data collection through electronic questionnaire form. As the questionnaire was distributed electronically and data were collected, many of the participants in the study were people who used cyberspace, messenger, and social networks at a relatively large level.  Citizens' high usage of audio-visual and audio media to inform health about Covid 19, along with a few referrals to doctors and using of official sources such as books and journals, can be risky because it reinforces the possibility that some information Non-specialist and undocumented to be used by citizens about this disease.