Blázquez Barba, MinervaGómez Romero, DoloresFrontaura Fernández, IsidoraCamacho Ojeda, AbdónRodríguez Salas, Francisco MToriz Cano, Higinio2023-01-252023-01-252018-02-14http://hdl.handle.net/10668/12110To describe Internet sources used by adolescents to consult health information and their sociodemographic characteristics, as well as to identify the variables that influence the choice of Internet site. Cross-sectional descriptive study. Survey adapted from the questionnaire validated by Rideout. Adolescents aged 12-18 from 4schools in rural municipalities. The study included a total of 405 adolescents, of whom 51.6% were female, age 14.9 ± 1.2 years. Most of them (87.25%) live with both parents, and 93.6% have computers at home, with 45.2% in their rooms, and a mean of 2.1 computers/home. The large majority (85.2%) have Internet at home, with 76.3% in their room. A total of 53.8% sought health information 0.71 ± 0.91 h/week, seeking mainly information on: cancer (89.9%), addictions (67.7%), STIs and HIV (49.6%), pregnancies/contraception (21, 5%), mental illness (40%), heart disease and diabetes mellitus (53.6%), and eating disorders (39.3%). Google was chosen by 63.2%, and only 11.9% chose medical websites. Information was shared on social networks by 12.8% (70.3% Facebook). The information found led to a change of behaviour in 70.7%. Just over half (56.05%) preferred to use the Internet for: speed, 34.8%, privacy, 15.8%, reliability, 13.6%, and more information, 17.6%. Adolescents seek information mainly through Google, with no knowledge of systems that accredit content quality, but consider it useful and reliable, changing their behaviour patterns according to the information found. All this carries a risk in this age group with very sensitive characteristics. Therefore, we believe that we should continue along the line of designing other alternative communication channels adapted to their current reality.esAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/AdolescentesAdolescentsHealth informationInformación sanitariaInternetAdolescentComputersConsumer BehaviorConsumer Health InformationCross-Sectional StudiesFamily CharacteristicsFemaleHealth BehaviorHumansInternetMaleOnline Social NetworkingOwnershipSurveys and Questionnairesresearch article29426583open access10.1016/j.aprim.2017.06.0051578-1275PMC6837131https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aprim.2017.06.005https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6837131/pdf