Online health information seeking behaviours among Malaysian breast cancer patients, survivors and caretakers: a content analysis

Abstract

Exploring online health information seeking behaviour (HISB) among Malaysian breast cancer patients, survivors and caretakers is crucial in understanding the ways these people used, communicated and disseminated online health information related to breast cancer. HISB has been explored and approached from different viewpoints which include extensive studies on online platform. Nonetheless, such expositions are considered inadequate as studies on cancer related online HISB are still scarce especially among Malaysians. The methodology used in this study is qualitative content analysis. Adapting the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 2021, the data was collected from 113 respondents via Survey Monkey platform. The users’ online health information searching behaviour with regards to cancer information were also investigated. Using content analysis to analyse the data, we identified three overarching themes in relation to online cancer-related information seeking behaviours among them. Three major themes identified are (i) internet as the primary source of cancer- related information, (ii) experience of seeking cancer-related information online and (iii) issue with seeking and sharing online cancer-related information. The findings of this study are of significance for the healthcare practitioners, public health experts and health communication researchers. Future studies should consider exploring how online health information seeking behaviour among these groups can contribute to engaging them to choose credible online cancer-related information and how these behaviours can help Malaysian health practitioners to offer, disseminate and fulfil the health information needs of these groups.