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• Health-related information gathering practices among outpatients

  124-138

  Regina Molnár

  Zoltán Sági

  Zsuzsanna Fejes

  Kálmán Törőcsik

  Béla Köves

  Edit Paulik

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  37

  Introduction: Obtaining health information is an important part of health behaviour. However, there is limited data available about information gathering habits of patients. Aims: To identify different patient groups according to their information gathering habits.
  Methods: Questionnaire survey among potential patients in an outpatient clinic in Budapest. The survey consisted of the following domains: sociodemographic data; habits of visit a doctor; communications method with a specialist; use of technical devices.
  Results: The survey was completed by 260 patients (36,2% men; 63,8% women). Patients primarily get medical information from their doctors, followed by the internet, where different websites and Facebook groups are the most common sources of information. Mostly they use the internet for checking their symptoms and complaints, however searching for data about their physicians and healthcare institutions are uncommon. Patients who are young, active workers, highly educated are more active, while elderly patients and widows search less information on the internet. Conclusions: There are socio-demographic groups who are underinformed by digital healthcare related issues. Audited websites and social media releases could play an important role in
  the information gathering process of patients, and also supplement patient-doctor relationship.