Use of the internet as a source of health information by Spanish adolescents

Jiménez Pernett, JaimeOlry-de-Labry-Lima, AntonioBermúdez Tamayo, ClaraGarcía Gutiérrez, José FranciscoSalcedo Sánchez, María del Carmen2012-01-162012-01-162010-01-29Jiménez-Pernett J, de Labry-Lima AO, Bermúdez-Tamayo C, García-Gutiérrez JF, Salcedo-Sánchez MC. Use of the internet as a source of health information by Spanish adolescents. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2010 Jan 29; 10:6http://hdl.handle.net/10668/277The Internet is a fundamental part of the daily life of adolescents, they consider it as a safe and confidential source of information on health matters. The aims is to describe the experience of Spanish adolescents searching for health information on the Internet. Methods A cross-sectional study of 811 school-age adolescents in Granada was carried out. An adapted and piloted questionnaire was used which was controlled by trained personnel. Sociodemographic and health variables were included together with those concerning the conditions governing access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICT). Results 811 adolescents were surveyed (99.38% response rate), mean age was 17 years old. Of these, 88% used the Internet; 57.5% used it on a daily or weekly basis and 38.7% used it occasionally. Nearly half the sample group (55.7%) stated that they used the Internet to search for health-related information. The main problems reported in the search for e-health were the ignorance of good web pages (54.8%) and the lack of confidence or search skills (23.2%). Conclusions In conclusion, it seems plausible to claim that websites designed and managed by health services should have a predominant position among interventions specifically addressed to young people.enAdolescenteInformación sanitariaEspañaMedical Subject Headings::Health Care::Health Care Facilities, Manpower, and Services::Health Services::Preventive Health Services::Health Education::Consumer Health InformationMedical Subject Headings::Information Science::Information Science::Computing Methodologies::Computer Systems::Computer Communication Networks::InternetMedical Subject Headings::Geographicals::Geographic Locations::Europe::SpainMedical Subject Headings::Named Groups::Persons::Age Groups::AdolescentUse of the internet as a source of health information by Spanish adolescentsresearch article20113486open access10.1186/1472-6947-10-6