Analysis of Relationship between Online Health Information Seeking Behavior with Occupation, Age and Education of the Graduates of Iranian Universities

With the leap in the development of information technology and social media, seeking health information online has become popular. This study endeavors to provide an analysis of users 'health-seeking information behavior in the web environment, based on Bates' developed model.

This applied study has been done by an analytical survey method. The data collection instrument was an online researcher-made questionnaire (sensitive to the differentiation of respondents) developed with inspiration from the research by Dow and her colleagues, which was enacted by 10 Faculty members of Iranian universities of medical sciences. The sample consisted of 72 individuals with bachelor's degrees and higher who were selected by volunteer sampling method. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman tests were used.

Approximately, 48% of the members of the research sample had a "scrutinizing" approach to their health question and 31% had a "direct and active (searching)" approach according to Bates' developed information model. These two information-seeking approaches were more prevalent (compared to "engineering" and "basic sciences" disciplines) among those who had worked or studied in the field of "social sciences and humanities" for at least one year .There was a significant difference between "occupation" and "online health information-seeking behavior based on the Bates' model". However, there was no significant difference between "age" and "level of education" and their health information-seeking behavior (March 2022).

Dow's model (based on the Bates developed seeking information model) can be used and be efficient in the health research to analyze the information seeking behavior of different groups.