The relationship of online health information seeking behaviour, e-health literacy and cyberchondria with cervical cancer screening attendance

Introduction and purpose: Cervical cancer is the fourth most common type of female cancer. In developed countries, morbidity and mortality have been dropping because of the diagnosis of preinvasive lesions with the screning tests. However, participation in cervical screning is approximately 36% worlwide. Rapidly developing technologies and expanding use of the Internet enable to improve digital interventions in order to increase the participations rates. For this, it is important to understand how women use online health information resources, to know e-health literacy levels and cyberchondria behaviors of women, and to determine whether participation in cancer screenings is associated with these variables. Therefore, the present study examined associations between online health information seeking behaviors (OHISB), e-health literacy, cyberchondria severity, and cervical cancer screening. Material and Method: This cross-sectional research was carried out face-to-face with correlational method. A total of 370 women aged 30-65 years and attending Ankara Bilkent Şehir Hospital Gynecology outpatient clinics participated in the study. Participants were asked to complete a quastionnaire survey consisting of four parts with the questions on their sociodemografic backgrounds, OHISB, e-Health Literacy Scale (eHEALS) and Cyberchondria Severity Scale Short Form (CSS-12). Data were analyzed using SPSS 23.0, and the statistical significance level was accepted as p<0.05. Results: Participants (mean age:43,1; 80,5% married; 74,6% high school and higher education level) are using the Internet more than one hour a day. %73 of them was participated in cervical cancer screenings and 76,3% of them have the knowledge of the screening frequency depends mostly on the recommendations by their family physician and by previous outpatient clinic experiences. It was found that 79.7% of the participants searched for health information from the internet in the last 12 months. The mean score was found 26.2 ± 7.4 for the e-Health Literacy Scale and 29.8 ± 8.6 for the Cyberchondria Severity Scale. There is no significant relationship between e-health literacy scores, cyberchondria scores, and the knowledge of the screening frequency. Only OHISB was positively associated with participation in screenings significantly. Also, the study resulted in a weak but positive correlation between the scale scores. Conclusion: Study findings revealed the importance of increasing participation rates in preventive health services such as cervical cancer screenings by suggesting health professionals, information and technology experts, and policy makers to develop new digital interventions.