SynthesisJournal of medical Internet research2020
Online Health Information Seeking by Parents for Their Children: Systematic Review and Agenda for Further Research.
Synthesis in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 120 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
120 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 214 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Empowering Role of Web-Based Help Seeking on Depressive Symptoms: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Pooled it
- Digital Interventions to Improve Health Literacy Among Parents of Children Aged 0 to 12 Years With a Health Condition: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Characteristics of the Measurement Tools for Assessing Health Information-Seeking Behaviors in Nationally Representative Surveys: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Educational Effects of Electronic Documents and Videos on Parents' Responses to Acute Illness in Young Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Japan journal of nursing science : JJNS · 2026Trial
- Mechanisms and outcomes of a very low intensity intervention to improve parental acknowledgement and understanding of childhood overweight/obesity, embedded in the National Child Measurement Programme: A sub-study within a large cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (MapMe2).British journal of health psychology · 2025Trial
- Beyond seeking information: Lessons learned from a qualitative investigation of the information practices of parents about COVID-19 vaccination in Canada.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2026Article
- Association Between Parental eHealth Literacy and Self-Reported Child Heat-Protection Practices: A Cross-Sectional Study in Türkiye.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Parenting and Child/Adolescent Development: Current Updates and Global Perspectives: Second Edition.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Infant Feeding Apps and Digital Parenting in Australia: Qualitative Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2026Article
- How Well Do "Dr. Google" and "Professor YouTube" Answer Health Questions for Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipients and Caregivers?Pediatric transplantation · 2026Article
- A Comparative Evaluation of Three Large Language Models for Parent-Centered Questions About Anorexia Nervosa.The International journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- A Qualitative Study Evaluating the Parent-Specific Cow's Milk-Related Symptom Score (Pre-CoMiSS™).Nutrients · 2026Article
- The Role of Large Language Models in Identifying and Correcting Paediatric Health Misinformation for Parents: A Paediatric Nursing Perspective.Journal of paediatrics and child health · 2026Article
- How do large language models answer ADHD-related questions? A comparative study of ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Factors Associated With Follow-Up Attendance After School Scoliosis Screening: A Pilot Cross-Sectional Study.Cureus · 2026Article
- Contraception-Related Posts from Adolescents, Young Adults, and Caregivers on Reddit: A Qualitative Content Analysis.Journal of pediatric and adolescent gynecology · 2026Article
- Article
- Peer health literacy level and health literacy among school-aged children and adolescents: a multilevel moderated mediation model of internet health information acquisition.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Reliability and readability of AI platforms for pediatric health advice: a comparative analysis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Update on Education for Families and Patients With Pediatric Heart Disease: A Focus on Technological Advancements, Procedures, and Transitions of Care: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Review
60 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundParents commonly use the internet to search for information about their child's health-related symptoms and guide parental health-related decisions. Despite the impact of parental online health seeking on offline health behaviors, this area of research remains understudied. Previous literature has not adequately distinguished searched behaviors when searching for oneself or one`s child.
objectiveThe purpose of this review is to examine prevalences and associated variables of parent-child online health information seeking; investigate parents' health-related online behavior regarding how they find, use, and evaluate information; and identify barriers and concerns that they experience during the search. Based on this analysis, we develop a conceptual model of potentially important variables of proxy online health information seeking, with a focus on building an agenda for further research.
methodsWe conducted a comprehensive systematic literature review of the PsycINFO, JMIR, and PubMed electronic databases. Studies between January 1994 and June 2018 were considered. The conceptual model was developed using an inductive mixed methods approach based on the investigated variables in the study sample.
resultsA total of 33 studies met the inclusion criteria. Findings suggest that parents worldwide are heavy online users of health-related information for their children across highly diverse circumstances. A total of 6 studies found high parental health anxiety, with prevalences ranging from 14% to 52%. Although parents reported wishing for more guidance from their pediatrician on how to find reliable information, they rarely discussed retrieved information from the web. The conceptual model of proxy online health information seeking includes 49 variables.
conclusionsThis systematic review identifies important gaps regarding the influence of health-related information on parents' health behavior and outcomes. Follow-up studies are required to offer parents guidance on how to use the web for health purposes in an effective way, as well as solutions to the multifaceted problems during or after online health information seeking for their child. The conceptual model with the number of studies in each model category listed highlights how previous studies have hardly considered relational variables between the parent and child. An agenda for future research is presented.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.