Chinese College Students’ Source Selection and Use in Searching for Health-related Information Online

作者：

Highlights：

• It is found that students’ health-related source selection and use behaviors had the characteristics of being over-reliance on sources in Baidu's ecosystem and over-reliance on Social Q&A webpages.

• Authoritative and professional health information in Chinese is less selected and used, while Wiki-type webpages are most likely to be used after being selected.

• Task type showed a significant impact on students’ selection and use of three specific source types. They selected and used more Wiki-type webpages for receptive tasks, but more Social Q&A webpages and News webpage when searching to address critical health issues.

摘要

•This study focused on Chinese college students’ source selection and use behaviors when searching for health information online, and particularly we distinguished the selection and use behaviors.•It is found that students’ health-related source selection and use behaviors had the characteristics of being over-reliance on sources in Baidu's ecosystem and over-reliance on Social Q&A webpages.•Authoritative and professional health information in Chinese is less selected and used, while Wiki-type webpages are most likely to be used after being selected.•Task type showed a significant impact on students’ selection and use of three specific source types. They selected and used more Wiki-type webpages for receptive tasks, but more Social Q&A webpages and News webpage when searching to address critical health issues.

论文关键词：Health information search,Information source selection,Information source use,Task context

论文评审过程：Received 12 August 2020, Revised 22 December 2020, Accepted 28 December 2020, Available online 26 January 2021, Version of Record 26 January 2021.

论文官网地址：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2021.102489