Table 4.

Associated factors of information-seeking behavior

Themes	Subthemes	Concepts	No. of Studies	Examples of quotations	References
Passive attention	Demographics	Demographically relevant variables including language barriers, cultural factors, low educational attainment, economic stress, and lower social status	5	"A lot of people are afraid to ask for help … Lately they have been careful signing up for government services because they hear a lot of things on the street … because of their legal status …" [25]	[20, 25, 32, 37, 46]
	Experience	Personal or other cancer-related experiences, including fear of cancer	4	"they said they were scared to ask the nurses any questions because of the negative response they would receive." [27]	[25, 27, 44, 45]
	Lack of salience	Perceived low significance of health information to individuals, including lack of motivation to obtain information about screening, and the perception that screening is not important to them	3	"I never do any reading, like research on breast cancer. Not necessary at the moment. If I really need to, I will do the research." [32]	[23, 26, 32]
	Lack of belief	Lack of belief that medical and preventive behaviors can effectively cope with health threats, including lack of awareness of screening and not seeing a doctor until there is a serious problem	2	"the lack of awareness about screening, and waiting to see a doctor until there is something acutely wrong." [45]	[25, 45]
Active searching	Experience	Personal or other cancer-related experiences, including having symptoms, getting positive screening results	4	"This was evidenced further by another woman, who identified women in her community who only actively seek breast screening or healthcare when symptoms arise" [46]	[8, 32, 46, 47]
	High salience	Health information is of great significance to individuals, and this is related to the level of perceived health threats, including the presence of cancer risk or concerns about their own health	3	"because back home it’s [only] when you’re sick you go [to seek health care]" [33]	[33, 38, 50]
	Lack of information	The lack of relevant information leads to active information seeking, including obtaining more information to assist in making screening decisions, obtaining information about the screening process and follow-up arrangements, choosing to seek information on their own because they cannot obtain effective information from medical personnel, consulting medical personnel to obtain professional knowledge, and obtaining personalized information	7	"a few women did feel sufficiently informed to make a decision about participation after having searched online for more personally relevant information about cervical cancer, CCS, and the risk of opting out." [26]	[22, 26, 27, 31, 35, 42, 49]
	Clarification of information	There is misunderstanding or uncertainty about the information that leads to the information-searching behavior, including not understanding the information, not understanding the medical terminology, clarifying the connotation of the screening results, verifying the authenticity and credibility of the information, and confirming the accuracy of the self-test	5	"Nearly all women searched online for information immediately after reading their letter.Often this was due to uncertainty about what information to trust and through reading conflicting information." [34]	[8, 34, 39, 42, 49]
	Anxiety caused by waiting	Feelings of anxiety caused by long waits, includeing not getting screening results in a timely manner, and long waits for screening	2	"Others talked about feeling worried about their results when they had been waiting for them, for example, a woman had to go back to the clinic to ask about her results." [47]	[47, 48]