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

Abstract

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.

Mother’s Behaviour in Using Smartphone to Find Child’s Health Information in Pontianak City

“…Most of mothers who visited the primary health care based on this study were around 26-30 years old (26.3%), and had the largest percentage of children 1-2 (62.5%) with the largest age range for children from 1 month to 6 years old. Compared to other studies 5,7 with similar information, where majority of the mothers were in their 30s, and majority of Reyes's study research mothers also has 1-2 children to take care in home. 7 The age of the child is also an important factor influencing mothers' health information needs for their children.…”

“…7 The age of the child is also an important factor influencing mothers' health information needs for their children. Lee (2017) 5 studies found that mothers tend to seek more information for their child between the ages of newborn to ten. Around 51.7% of mothers had the senior high school as their last degree, and most of them are housewives (75.4% & 70.3%).…”

“…Around 51.7% of mothers had the senior high school as their last degree, and most of them are housewives (75.4% & 70.3%). Interestingly, Lee (2017) 5 found that the education level of the sample was considerably high with 50% having either masters or doctoral degrees, only 2.2% of the participants had no college degree. Since this sample was recruited in a university town that is dominated by its university population may have influenced the results.…”

“…4 Specifically, some research noted that the active role of mothers as health information seekers is due mothers have traditionally been more involved in managing the health of their family members. 5,6 The seek out for children's health information, of course, is inseparable from the presence of health facilities as a place for mothers to visit and get information on children's health, other than through smartphones. Therefore, sufficient knowledge to use the internet and obtain child health information is needed by a mother, one of them through the use of smartphone.…”

“…Several studies have covered health information seeking/use behaviors among mothers. 5,7 However, none have specifically examined child's health information seeking/use behaviors among mothers in Indonesia especially in primary health care scope. Based on the description above, the researcher would like to conduct the research about "The Overview of Mothers' Behavior in Utilize of Smartphone to Seeking Out Children's Health Information in Pontianak" to see how mother's behavior use the smartphone as first source of child's health information.…”