Evaluation of Awareness of Pediatric Urology and Parents' Internet Use

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The internet is increasingly becoming important in daily life and healthcare services do not resist this change and keep evolving accordingly. In this study it was aimed to evaluate the awareness of pediatric urology, use of the internet for medical purposes by the parents of pediatric urology patients. METHODS: A well-prepared 12-question anonymous questionnaire was administered to randomly selected 139 parents. Parents were questioned on whether they sought on the web information about the urologic problem of their child before presenting to the outpatient clinic, if so from which websites, whether the search results were useful, how it affected their relationship with the physician, whether they had knowledge about the pediatric urology subspecialty before presenting to outpatient clinic. RESULTS: Percentages of internet access increased parallel to the increased level of education. In the educational status analysis of the parents who performed an internet search, the ratio of the graduates of the university and above (90.9%) were statistically higher than primary school graduates (62.5%). The average age of children whose parents performed internet search was significantly lower than whose parents did not (6.3+-3.9 vs 8.4+-5.1 years respectively). The sources used for the internet search were statistically different across different levels of education. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Significant use of the internet among those attending pediatric urology outpatient clinic is demonstrated and that there was less awareness of the pediatric urology.

Keywords

• awareness
• child
• internet
• parents
• physician
• urology