Table 1.
Descriptive analysis of the sources used for online information seeking (N = 2996).
| Sources Used for Online Information Seeking | Sex | Response Options | p-Value * | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Often | Sometimes | Rarely | Never | Don’t Know | ||||||||
| N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | N | % | |||
| Search engines | M | 693 | 73.9 | 174 | 18.6 | 51 | 5.4 | 16 | 1.7 | 4 | 0.4 | 0.919 |
| F | 1502 | 75.0 | 350 | 17.5 | 102 | 5.1 | 39 | 1.9 | 10 | 0.5 | ||
| ALL | 2195 | 74.6 | 524 | 17.8 | 153 | 5.2 | 55 | 1.9 | 14 | 0.5 | ||
| Websites of public bodies | M | 372 | 39.7 | 346 | 37.0 | 153 | 16.3 | 59 | 6.3 | 6 | 0.6 | <0.001 |
| F | 1033 | 51.7 | 638 | 31.9 | 257 | 12.9 | 63 | 3.2 | 6 | 0.3 | ||
| ALL | 1405 | 47.9 | 984 | 33.5 | 410 | 14.0 | 122 | 4.2 | 12 | 0.4 | ||
| Wikipedia and other online-encyclopedias | M | 248 | 26.6 | 316 | 33.9 | 211 | 22.6 | 146 | 15.6 | 12 | 1.3 | 0.355 |
| F | 549 | 27.5 | 607 | 30.4 | 503 | 25.2 | 308 | 15.4 | 27 | 1.4 | ||
| ALL | 797 | 27.2 | 923 | 31.5 | 714 | 24.4 | 454 | 15.5 | 39 | 1.3 | ||
| Social media (eg, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) | M | 215 | 23.1 | 201 | 21.6 | 235 | 25.2 | 257 | 27.6 | 23 | 2.5 | <0.001 |
| F | 682 | 34.1 | 494 | 24.7 | 449 | 22.5 | 336 | 16.8 | 39 | 2.0 | ||
| ALL | 897 | 30.6 | 695 | 23.7 | 684 | 23.3 | 593 | 20.2 | 62 | 2.1 | ||
| YouTube | M | 174 | 18.7 | 184 | 19.8 | 255 | 27.4 | 288 | 31.0 | 28 | 3.0 | 0.032 |
| F | 301 | 15.1 | 372 | 18.6 | 543 | 27.2 | 705 | 35.3 | 78 | 3.9 | ||
| ALL | 475 | 16.2 | 556 | 19.0 | 798 | 27.3 | 993 | 33.9 | 106 | 3.6 | ||
| Blogs on health topics | M | 37 | 4.0 | 165 | 17.9 | 285 | 31.0 | 380 | 41.3 | 53 | 5.8 | <0.001 |
| F | 176 | 8.9 | 390 | 19.7 | 667 | 33.6 | 661 | 33.3 | 89 | 4.5 | ||
| ALL | 213 | 7.3 | 555 | 19.1 | 952 | 32.3 | 1041 | 35.9 | 142 | 4.9 | ||
| Online communities | M | 39 | 4.2 | 94 | 10.2 | 233 | 25.2 | 487 | 52.8 | 70 | 7.6 | 0.259 |
| F | 84 | 4.2 | 241 | 12.1 | 549 | 27.6 | 973 | 48.8 | 145 | 7.3 | ||
| ALL | 123 | 4.2 | 335 | 11.5 | 782 | 26.8 | 1460 | 50.1 | 215 | 7.4 | ||
| Health portals | M | 151 | 16.2 | 315 | 33.8 | 232 | 24.9 | 195 | 20.9 | 38 | 4.1 | <0.001 |
| F | 527 | 26.5 | 663 | 33.3 | 478 | 24.0 | 266 | 13.4 | 56 | 2.8 | ||
| ALL | 678 | 23.2 | 978 | 33.5 | 710 | 24.3 | 461 | 15.8 | 94 | 3.2 | ||
| Websites of doctors or health insurance companies | M | 48 | 5.2 | 169 | 18.2 | 251 | 27.0 | 392 | 42.2 | 70 | 7.5 | <0.001 |
| F | 192 | 9.6 | 412 | 20.7 | 578 | 29.0 | 660 | 33.1 | 153 | 7.7 | ||
| ALL | 240 | 8.2 | 581 | 19.9 | 829 | 28.3 | 1052 | 36.0 | 223 | 7.6 | ||
| News portals | M | 271 | 29.1 | 361 | 38.7 | 174 | 18.7 | 102 | 10.9 | 24 | 2.6 | <0.001 |
| F | 739 | 37.0 | 746 | 37.3 | 346 | 17.3 | 143 | 7.2 | 25 | 1.3 | ||
| ALL | 1010 | 34.5 | 1107 | 37.8 | 520 | 17.7 | 245 | 8.4 | 49 | 1.7 | ||
* Pearson’s chi-squared test.