Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34946466›Full record

ReviewHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2021

Online Health Information Seeking Behavior: A Systematic Review.

Xiaoyun Jia, Yan Pang, Liangni Sally Liu

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 254 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
254citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
75.8field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

254 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 461 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Content accuracy and readability of dietary advice available on webpages: A systematic review of the evidence.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Prevalence and predictors of medical information avoidance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025
    Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
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194 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Xiaoyun JiaBusiness School, Foshan University, Foshan 528225, China.ORCID 0000-0002-5525-9349
Yan PangHunan Key Laboratory of Intelligent Logistics Technology, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China.
Liangni Sally LiuSchool of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication, Massey University, Auckland 0632, New Zealand.ORCID 0000-0001-9937-9898
Central South University of Forestry and Technology · CNFoshan University · CNMassey University · NZ

Funding

Hunan Key Laboratory of Intelligent Logistics Technology 2019TP1015
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The last five years have seen a leap in the development of information technology and social media. Seeking health information online has become popular. It has been widely accepted that online health information seeking behavior has a positive impact on health information consumers. Due to its importance, online health information seeking behavior has been investigated from different aspects. However, there is lacking a systematic review that can integrate the findings of the most recent research work in online health information seeking, and provide guidance to governments, health organizations, and social media platforms on how to support and promote this seeking behavior, and improve the services of online health information access and provision. We therefore conduct this systematic review. The Google Scholar database was searched for existing research on online health information seeking behavior between 2016 and 2021 to obtain the most recent findings. Within the 97 papers searched, 20 met our inclusion criteria. Through a systematic review, this paper identifies general behavioral patterns, and influencing factors such as age, gender, income, employment status, literacy (or education) level, country of origin and places of residence, and caregiving role. Facilitators (i.e., the existence of online communities, the privacy feature, real-time interaction, and archived health information format), and barriers (i.e., low health literacy, limited accessibility and information retrieval skills, low reliable, deficient and elusive health information, platform censorship, and lack of misinformation checks) to online health information seeking behavior are also discovered.

Indexed as

health information consumersonline health information seeking behavioronline HISBsocial

Identifiers

PMID34946466
PMCPMC8701665
OpenAlexW4200535791

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.