Online Health Searching: A Perspective from South East Asia_ Crimson Publishers

 Online Health Searching: A Perspective from South East Asia by Anushia Inthiran* in Techniques in Neurosurgery & Neurology_ Journal of Neurosurgery

 

Abstract
Searching for online health information is an activity conducted by people from all walks of life. Performing a health search is not a trivial task. A searcher could be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available and the need to understand technical and complex details; more so when the search is performed by a layperson. However, the complexity and technicality of performing an online health search does not discourage health consumers from performing a health search on the Internet. Research studies from developed countries provide information on the type of person who performs the search, sources used, type of search performed, and devices used to perform the search. However, similar information from South East Asia is limited. There are many reasons for this, among them being the lack of medical knowledge and experience and low levels of health literacy in comparison to health consumers in the developed world. Nevertheless, there is some information about online health information searching from South East Asia. In recent years, researchers have started shedding light on the online health information searching behaviour of health consumers from South East Asia. Often, the purpose of these studies is to explore, describe and compare online health searching behaviour of health consumers in developing countries and in developed countries. These research studies conducted in South East Asia contribute to literature within this field and has made the online health information searching scene rich. The aim of this opinion piece is to describe what is known about the online health information searching behaviour within the South East Asian region and to postulate direction of online health searching within this region. South East Asian online health consumers indicate experiencing positive and negative search experience. In some cases, post search outcomes influenced the search experience. Results of a study indicate information overload as the main negative concern. Other issues include pages that contained too much information, pages were not properly structured and presence of too many links on the page. This contributed to the search process being cumbersome [1]. Results also indicate that the search process influenced participants emotionally and resulted in them limiting the search activity from proceeding further. As a coping mechanism some participants question the comments and arguments presented on the site whilst other ignored any serious implications presented on the page

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