Unmet needs for health information: a literature review

Abstract

This paper explores the recent literature on unmet needs for health information, giving an overview of some of the research that has been carried out since Kempson's review and study in 1987. Many of the studies looking at health information needs have been approached from a narrow focus of individual information needs for specific services, with limited research into the views of the general public. The greatest demand for health information appears to be in the area of specific diseases and medical conditions with limited demand for information on the availability and quality of care. These findings may be a reflection of the narrow focus of much previous research and/or the limited availability of health information on access and quality. The paper argues for the need to look widely at the health information needs of households and families at all stages of health and illness, taking into account the interrelationship of needs and the social context in which such needs are, or are not perceived.

Gender differences in health information behaviour: a Finnish population-based survey

“…Lay interpersonal sources of health-related information People receive quite a lot of health-related information informally, often without any active performance of themselves, by lay interpersonal sources of information, such as the close family, other kin, friends and workmates (Buckland, 1994;Ek, 2005;Ford and Kaphingst, 2009). In fact, it has been suggested that the most used information sources for most people are kin and peer relations (Dervin, 1983;Chatman, 1996); that is, people meet, communicate and give and ask advice from people in their everyday life networks.…”

Cancer-related information sought by the general public: Evidence from the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Information Service, 2002–2003

“…Prior research has assessed cancer information seeking. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Furthermore, specific evaluation of the information sought by callers to the CIS has also been pursued 7,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] ; however, many of these prior evaluations have examined the information sought by cancer patients 6,17,18,21,23 and their caregivers. 17,19 Growing public interest in cancer information coupled with increases in the amount and complexity of cancer information demands careful, timely, and continual evaluation of public requests for information.…”

Contextualizing consumer health information searching

“…At different stages of health and illness, consumers have different levels of needs and require different types of information [5]. The study identified eight stages on which general users could search for health information: when healthy, when they think they might be ill, before getting a medical test, when diagnosed as ill, before treatment, when receiving the treatment, after treatment/surgery, and when being chronically ill. At different stages, people had different foci of concern and asked for different types of information.…”

“…Askers felt that they did not get enough information from healthcare professionals (5). Some askers reported that MDs or nurses refused to discuss with them issues of interest, had not told them much, could not seem to find what it was, or simply shrugged their questions off.…”