Exploring the impact of information seeking behaviors of online health consumers in the Arab World

Salwa Bahkali*, Reem Almaiman, Mamoun El-AWAD, Huda Almohanna, Khaled Al-Surimi, Mowafa Househ

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the Arab world, increasing numbers of people are seeking online health related information for diagnoses, medicine, fitness, pharmaceutical drugs, and smoking cessation programs, among others. Studies exploring the impact of social media channels on health seeking behavior among Arabic users are limited. This study has two goals: (1) describe the prevalence of online health informationseeking behavior in the Arab world, and (2) study the impacts of social media based platforms in helping promote healthy living in the Arab world. In order to gather primary data, a web-based cross-sectional survey with a total of 7013 selfadministered questionnaires was sent via SMS messages (n=1278), to Twitter followers of an Arab women's health social media account (n=3630 followers), and WhatsApp messages (n=2105) to participants above 16 years of age representing different socioeconomic groups and within the Arabic speaking world. The findings of this study show high interest among the participants (84.9%) in seeking online health information. Furthermore, reporting online information had an impact on participant health behaviors. Social media can play an important role in strengthening the health care system to provide valuable information, educational programs and interventions to promote healthy life styles among the Arabic people.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUnifying the Applications and Foundations of Biomedical and Health Informatics
EditorsJohn Mantas, Mowafa S. Househ, Arie Hasman, Parisis Gallos, Aikaterini Kolokathi
PublisherIOS Press
Pages279-282
Number of pages4
ISBN (Electronic)9781614996637
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016
Externally publishedYes
Event14th International Conference on Informatics, Management, and Technology in Healthcare, ICIMTH 2016 - Athens, Greece
Duration: 1 Jul 20163 Jul 2016

Publication series

NameStudies in Health Technology and Informatics
Volume226
ISSN (Print)0926-9630
ISSN (Electronic)1879-8365

Conference

Conference14th International Conference on Informatics, Management, and Technology in Healthcare, ICIMTH 2016
Country/TerritoryGreece
CityAthens
Period1/07/163/07/16

Keywords

  • Health promotion.
  • Healthy lifestyle
  • Seeking online information
  • Social media

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