Online health information avoidance

Colleen Addison, MA, MLIS, PhD candidateLuanne Freund, PhD

Agenda

Personal Motivation

Background

Research questions

Methods

Results

Discussion

Personal Motivation

Taught English (pre-2006)

Prague

Tunis

MLIS 2006 (University of Western Ontario)

How people look up information

Background

“any behaviour intended to prevent or delay the acquisition

of available but potentially un-wanted information”

(Sweeny et al, 2010)

-usually in health arena

-what’s missing: why and how

Definition

Background

Why people avoid information

1. Personality

-monitoring and blunting theory (Miller, 1980)

-self-efficacy (Melnyk & Shepperd, 2012)

2. Affect

-managing emotions: hope, fear (Sweeny et al, 2010;

Barbour et al, 2012)

3. Information source

-avoiding negative information (Nielsen & Shapiro, 2009)

Background

How people avoid information

removing or ignoring stimuli not going to the doctor

controlling conversations (Barbour et al, 2012)

Little is known about online tactics-Googling and then stopping

Research questions

1. What factors influence the information avoidance process

and to what extent?

2. What are the mechanisms of information avoidance?

Methods

Dissertation study:

-pilot study: online survey

-experimental user study

-qualitative interviews

Methods

Demographic questionnaire and need for cognition test

Gave people hypothetical scenarios (“imagine you have”) about various

diseases of varying severityMeningioma (brain tumour)Acoustic neuroma (benign tumour located in ear)Bell’s palsy (usually temporary facial paralysis)Crohn’s disease (digestive disorder)Lupus (autoimmune disease)

Gave Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) test to measure

emotional response

Asked them how likely they would be to look for information (6:

extremely likely to 1: not at all likely)

Online survey using crowdsourcing platform for recruitment

Results

-198 participants

AN: 38; CP: 39; CD: 42; LP: 38; MG: 41

-slight majority were men (110 men; 88 women)

-mainly young (68% between 19 and 39)

-a range of education (36% high school; 31% undergrad; 21%

college; 5% graduate)

-majority (83) had “good” health (middle category)

Information avoidance

Please rate how much information you would likely seek

out and read about acoustic neuromas if you actually

had this condition.  Please use the comment box to

explain your answer.  

Choose one of the following answers6 I would look for as much information as I could find5 I would look for a great deal of information4 I would look for a moderate amount of information3 I would look for a small amount of information2 I would not avoid information, but would not actively look for it1 I would avoid information about this disease No answer

Information avoidance

Likelihood of looking for information

Numbers of people

Likelihood of looking for information

Numbers of people

Comments

Please rate how much information you would likely

seek out and read about ________ if you actually had this

condition.  Please use the comment box to explain your

answer.  

Comments: Levels of interest

Information disinterest/interest

“I have no desire to learn about this.” (MG)

”I would be curious to know everything about this

'condition’.” (BP)

Comments: Managing emotions

Looking for hopeful information

“I would be despiretely [sic] trying to find as much info as possible. Hopeing [sic] for

some good news” (MG)

Resisting overreactions

“I would want more information but I would not want to be consumed with looking

for information” (BP)

Comments: Authority/information source

“I would…try to find out if there is anything the doctors aren’t

telling me.” (AN)

“I would want to see information, but would 'take with a grain

of salt' until I could discuss further with my doctor.” (BP)

Study Limitations

Hypothetical scenarios

people may act differently in real situations

Reasons for information avoidance

why people avoided remained fairly unclear

Time factor

the question about information seeking came quickly

after participants viewed a scenario

Summary

-majority sought info, but a clear minority avoided

-a range of considerations affect the likelihood of people’s

information searching

-people search for information to fulfill needs other than

informational, such as affective needs

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