BACKGROUND
Given the increasing availability of internet, it has become a common source of health information for all population including students. However, the actual effect of this increased access to information on the health status and its different aspects needs to be studied more.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to investigate the correlations between online health information seeking behavior and general health dimensions in a sample of high school students of Iran.
METHODS
A survey was conducted among secondary school girl students of Yazd province, Iran in 2019. A total of 295 students participated in the study. The required data were gathered using two valid questionnaires including eHIQ (Kelly et al., 2015) to measure the online health information seeking experience and validated Persian version of SF-36 to measure the general health status of the participants. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient using SPSS version 23.
RESULTS
Online health information seeking behavior and its subscales showed no statistical correlations with general health status and its dimensions.
CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that seeking online health information does not improve the general health status. The possible causes are discussed but this finding should be studied more.
CLINICALTRIAL
Not applicable