INTRODUCTONWith the emerging trends in patient-centric care, healthcare records generated for and by professionals are increasingly being distributed to patients. Using electronic patient portals, termed personal health records (PHRs) systems, patients and their caregivers can easily access their health records that were not previously available. In addition, health consumers seek online assistance for their health matters on a regular basis, which in turn produces online health information for later personal use. With abundant personal health information at hand, individuals are faced with a critical challenge in evaluating the informational value of the healthcare records in order to keep useful information and discard that which is determined useless.College students in particular are confronted with a similar issue, but their situation is quite different from that of the senior population. Young, healthy college students who were previously dependents of adult parents or caregivers are less likely to be concerned with disease management. As such, their lack of interest in healthcare [1] leads to further disinterest in personal health document management. In fact, college students are still under their parents' health insurance policy, so their health documents are still under their parents' supervision and management. Even if they are in the gradual process of becoming independent from their parents, college students are rarely taught how to evaluate the informational value of their health records.
Personal health information management (PHIM) is a special case of personal information management (PIM)that is associated with multiple interactions among varying users (e.g., patients, providers, insurance companies), complex health information and systems (e.g., labs, medications, insurance), and advanced health information technology tools (e.g., personal health records, personal health devices) [2][3][4]. In PHIM research, little is known about college students' information management activities in the health context. Thus, this study investigates the demographic and academic profiles of college students in regard to diverse PHIM activities. Additionally, we aim to discover the major determinants of key information management activities among college students for health information.
PHIM Activities and Document TypesWhat individuals do with their personal health documents has been studied to understand diverse information management activities, document types, and related personal behaviors. As a health focus of PIM, PHIM refers to informational activities and behaviors, such as collecting, organizing, searching, sharing, using, and understanding health
