ASSESSMENT OF HEALTH INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR AND ITS DEMOGRAPHIC DETERMINANTS AMONG RESIDENTS OF COMMUNITIES LIVING AROUND TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN MAIDUGURI, NORTH EAST NIGERIA

Abstract

Access to health information have witnessed phenomenal growth in developing countries over the last few decades.
There is however limited information on health information seeking behaviour and utilization in poor resource
communities in the country. It is important that individuals seek proper health information in order to make
decisions on disease prevention, personal health promotion and participation in clinical decisions. This study aims to
assess health information seeking behaviour (HISB) in communities around selected tertiary institutions in
Maiduguri. This was a cross-sectional survey using a 56-item validated health information questionnaire (Cronbach
alpha = 0.861). The questionnaire consists of items on six domains of health information (sources, uses, trust,
reliability/quality, need, application, preference for sources). The responses were on four points (and three-point
scale range from strongly agree to strongly disagree with neutral in the middle. A total of 1,513 respondents
selected by convenience sampling completed the survey and their data used for the analysis. The data was entered
into SPSS version 21 for analysis. Descriptive statistics and Chi square tests were performed to summarize the data
and for association between demographic variables and health information seeking behaviour (HISB). P values <
0.05 was considered statistically significant. The sociodemographic characteristics of respondents showed that about
half of them were males (51.3%) and females (48.7%) of which majority of had post-secondary education (77.9%).
While non-health professional sources were most utilized (56.9%), health professionals were the most preferred
(57.2%) and trusted (53.8%). Most of the information was used for self-care (17.9%), detect medicine side effects
(13.8%) and maternal/child care (11.6%). There was statistically significant association between socio-demographic
factors and health information seeking behaviour (p < 0.001). Health professionals remain the most preferred,
trusted and utilized, however public health information sources were considered most reliable and of high quality.
Most of the information was needed for self-care and basic healthcare before undertaking medical consultation.