Internet use among mothers of young children in Norway—a survey of Internet habits and perceived parental competence when caring for a sick child

Skranes, Lars Petter; Løhaugen, Gro; Botngård, Anja; Skranes, Jon

doi:10.1007/s10389-014-0631-x

Cited by 24 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The use of either digital media or personal contacts does not significantly vary between the information seeking targets, general health and development and acute child's illness. Comparable results were found in a study on Norwegian mothers [36].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Parents’ health information seeking behaviour – does the child’s health status play a role?

Baumann

Jaks

Robin

et al. 2020

Preprint

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BackgroundDigital media are increasingly abundant and being used to seek health information. To date, very little is known about parental seeking behaviour for child health information outside of English-speaking and Nordic countries. Our study “Digital parental counsellors” examines how parents search for health information in digital media, print media and among personal contacts, distinguishing between the search for information about general child health and development and child’s acute illness, and comparing information seeking behaviour by disability status of the child.MethodsA questionnaire was sent to 2573 parents (response rate: 30%) to a population-based sample of parents with children aged 0–2 years (N = 769). We developed a frequency score of use of different information sources and conducted bivariate and multivariate linear regression analyses to describe parental search behaviour and the association with child’s disability status.ResultsThe sample consists of 88% mothers (mean age: 35.7 years SD 4.33). Children’s mean age is 16 months (SD 7.1), 49% of the children are female and 6% have a disability. Parents use digital media significantly more frequently to search for information about general health and development questions than about an acute child’s illness (p < 0.001). In case of acute child’s illness, parents refer to their paediatrician, family members and other personal contacts significantly more frequently than other information sources (p < 0.001). The use of digital media and personal contacts does not significantly vary between parents with and without a disabled child, whereas the use of print media does (p < 0.02). Moreover, irrespective of disability, 45% of parents resort to the Internet prior to a paediatric visit and 27% after a visit when a visit did not answer all questions.ConclusionsDespite the high prevalence of digital media, personal contacts are still the most frequent health information resource for parents with young children. Parents combine all information resources (online, print, personal network) to improve their understanding or check the validity of information received regarding their child’s health. It is thus of utmost importance, that the increasingly accessed digital information parents search for is correct, understandable and addresses parent’s concerns.Trial registration:BASEC Req-2017-00817 (30 October 2017)

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Parents’ health information seeking behaviour – does the child’s health status play a role?

Baumann

Jaks

Robin

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The use of either digital media or "personal contacts" does not signi cantly vary between the information seeking targets, general health and development and acute child's illness. Comparable results were found in a study on Norwegian mothers [36].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Parents’ health information seeking behaviour – does the child’s health status play a role?

Baumann

Jaks

Robin

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Digital media are increasingly abundant and being used to seek health information. To date, very little is known about parental seeking behaviour for child health information outside of English-speaking and Nordic countries. Our study “Digital parental counsellors” examines how parents search for health information in digital media, print media and among “personal contacts”, distinguishing between the search for information about general child health and development and child’s acute illness, and comparing information seeking behaviour by disability status of the child. Methods: The population-based sample consisted of 769 parents with children aged 0-2 in the German-speaking region of Switzerland returning the study questionnaire (30% response rate). We developed a frequency score of use of different information sources and conducted bivariate and multivariate linear regression analyses to describe parental search behaviour and the association with child’s disability status. Results: The sample consists of 88% mothers (mean age: 35.7 years SD 4.33). Children’s mean age is 16 months (SD 7.1), 49% of the children are female and 6% have a disability. Parents use digital media significantly more frequently to search for information about general health and development questions than about an acute child’s illness (p<0.001). In case of acute child’s illness, parents refer to their paediatrician, family members and other personal contacts significantly more frequently than other information sources (p<0.001). The use of digital media and “personal contacts” does not significantly vary between parents with and without a disabled child, whereas the use of print media does (p<0.02). Moreover, irrespective of disability, 45% of parents resort to the Internet prior to a paediatric visit and 27% after a visit when a visit did not answer all questions.Conclusions: Despite the high prevalence of digital media, personal contacts are still the most frequent health information resource for parents with young children. Parents combine all information resources (online, print, personal network) to improve their understanding or check the validity of information received regarding their child’s health. It is thus of utmost importance, that the increasingly accessed digital information parents search for is correct, understandable and addresses parent’s concerns. Trial registration: BASEC Req-2017-00817 (30 October 2017)

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“…In addition to offline resources, resources on the Internet have provided greater public access to health information. Previous studies (Allen and Rainie 2002;Fox and Duggan 2013;Skranes et al 2014;Yoo 2004) showed that mothers are the most fervent online health information seekers related to family members including their children. For this study, mothers were selected as the target population in consideration of their key roles as health-information seekers, health-managers and caregivers for their family members and themselves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Information Needs and Seeking Behaviors among Korean Mothers of Young Children in the United States

Lee

2017

Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Informatio

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Previous studies have noted mothers' roles as active health information seekers, health managers, and caregivers for their family members. However, little is known about health information needs and seeking behaviors among Korean mothers of young children living in the United States. Using paper-based surveys, this study found that vaccination, child dental health, parenting, nutrition and diets, and physical exercise were ranked as the five most important health topics by the Korean mothers of young children aged 0 to 10 years old in this sample. Furthermore, this study revealed that mothers of boys evaluated the importance of two topics significantly higher than those of girls: circumcision (t=3.16, p < .01) and breastfeeding (t=2.47, p < .05). Also, age of child was an important factor influencing mothers' information needs in three health topics: child dental health (F=5.292, p < .01), physical exercise (F=7.107, p < .01), and child skin care (F=5.640, p < .01). Implications for developing health information services are also discussed.

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Internet use among mothers of young children in Norway—a survey of Internet habits and perceived parental competence when caring for a sick child

Cited by 24 publications

References 26 publications

Parents’ health information seeking behaviour – does the child’s health status play a role?

Parents’ health information seeking behaviour – does the child’s health status play a role?

Parents’ health information seeking behaviour – does the child’s health status play a role?

Health Information Needs and Seeking Behaviors among Korean Mothers of Young Children in the United States

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