An Observational Study of How Young People Search for Online Sexual Health Information

Little is known about the quality of online sexual health information, how young people access the Internet to answer their sexual health questions, or an individual's ability to sort through myriad sources for accurate information. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine how coll...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of American college health Vol. 58; no. 2; pp. 101 - 111
Main Authors Buhi, Eric R., Daley, Ellen M., Fuhrmann, Hollie J., Smith, Sarah A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Taylor & Francis Group 01.09.2009
Heldref Publications
Taylor & Francis Inc
Subjects
Adolescents
College Students
Consumer Health Information
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Health Behavior
Health Education - methods
health information
Humans
Information Seeking
Information Storage and Retrieval - methods
Internet
Internet - utilization
Male
Medical Informatics
Observation - methods
Observational research
Online Searching
Prenatal Care
Sampling Studies
Search Engines
Sexual Behavior
Sexual health
Sexuality
Sexually transmitted diseases
STD
Students - statistics & numerical data
Studies
Undergraduate Students
United States
Universities
Web Sites
Websites
Young Adult
Young Adults
Young people
United States
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Summary:Little is known about the quality of online sexual health information, how young people access the Internet to answer their sexual health questions, or an individual's ability to sort through myriad sources for accurate information. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine how college students search for online sexual health information and whether they retrieve accurate answers to sexual health questions. Participants: In fall 2007, the authors recruited 34 first-year, first-semester undergraduates to participate in an observational research study, using Camtasia Studio. Results: Most students found accurate answers to the 12 sexual health questions posed. Finding local information and resources online proved more difficult than finding answers to general sexual health questions. Conclusions: The Internet has become the leading source for sexual health information. Based on their findings, the authors argue that young people must be educated about how Web search engine results are prioritized/displayed and trained to evaluate Web sites for reliable information.
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ISSN:0744-8481
1940-3208
DOI:10.1080/07448480903221236