Background: Digital media are increasingly abundant and used to seek health information, however, to date very little\nis known on parentsâ?? seeking behavior in the context of childâ??s health and development outside English-speaking and\nScandinavian countries. By investigating the prevalence of, and reasons for use, we studied parentsâ?? perception of the\nInternet as a resource for improving their health-related knowledge.\nMethods: The survey was conducted in a random sample of 2573 Swiss-German parents with at least one child aged\nless-than 2 years old. Parents received a mailed invitation to fill in an online questionnaire. Two reminders were sent, the\nlater with a paper questionnaire attached. The questionnaire included questions on use of print, digital, and personal\ninformation sources, as well as different information situations: general health and development or illness. We\nran descriptive analyses on information seeking behavior, type of digital media used, reasons of use. We also\nconducted regression analyses to explore factors associated with parental perceptions with regard to the\nInternetâ??s utility as a source for health information.\nResults: A total of 769 questionnaires were returned (response rate 30%). Nearly all parents (91%) used digital\nmedia for seeking information on their childâ??s health and development, and the main reason for use was indicated as\nbeing the 24/7 availability of information. Search engines (55%) and webpages for parents (47%) were by far the most\nfrequently used digital media. Generally, the internet is perceived as a good resource, especially by fathers (OR = 1.80,\n95% CI: 1.03â??3.16). However, a large percentage of parents are skeptical about the correctness of online info (91%), are\nunsure about their interpretive understanding, and ask for guidance from their pediatrician (67%).\nConclusions: The Internet has become a highly frequented source of information for Swiss-German parents on childrenâ??s\nhealth with largely valuable perceptions of its utility. Digital media are used in addition to and not in replacement of print\nmedia and personal contacts. Increasing parental guidance by health and public health professionals could improve\nparental digital health utilization and empower parents in the new role they adopt.
Loading....