Exploring psychological variables in users’ health information-seeking behavior: A systematic review

Abstract

One of the important factors that play a fundamental role in people’s information behavior is psychological factors. The aim of the current research is to identify the psychological factors that impact users’ health information-seeking behavior through a systematic review. Innovation in this work emphasizes the use of a systematic approach to identify psychological factors that influence individuals’ information behavior. By employing a systematic method, this research can have high scientific value and provides greater confidence in identifying and describing psychological factors related to information behavior. The research method of this study was carried out using a systematic review method. After searching in WoS, PubMed, and Scopus databases, 4162 articles were reviewed, after removing repetition and applying article selection criteria, 31 articles were selected for analysis. In this article, a systematic review of the Prisma flowchart tool has been utilized. The Prisma flowchart is a valuable instrument for ensuring methodological transparency and facilitating the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. It provides a structured framework for outlining the various stages of the review process, including study identification, screening, eligibility assessment, data extraction, and synthesis. By employing the Prisma flowchart, researchers can enhance the rigor and reproducibility of their systematic reviews, thereby promoting evidence-based decision making in various fields of study. The findings reveal that out of 31 articles, 28 were surveys, and 3 were descriptive studies. Furthermore, one article employed an intervention methodology, targeting community members, pregnant women, or patients as the statistical population. The research findings highlight anxiety, uncertainty, and avoidance of information as the most commonly identified psychological variables influencing Health information-seeking behavior. Psychological factors play an important role in the health information behavior of information users in different societies; however, in the published articles in the field of health information behavior, more attention has been paid to information carriers and less attention has been paid to the psychological characteristics of people, which originate from the human psyche and mind. The importance of dealing with non-communicable diseases has been emphasized in the “Research and Technology Policies and Priorities” documents. These documents highlight disease management, self-care, and the role of education and information in disease control and reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases. Therefore, it is essential that planners and policymakers can take important steps by focusing on these factors in order to improve the quality of information acquisition. Also, this work provides the possibility for researchers to study the information in future research with more knowledge by knowing the existing gaps in the field of psychologically effective factors on information behavior

Keywords

• anxiety
• health information-seeking behavior
• information avoidance
• psychological variables
• uncertainly