فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

BACKGROUND: The motivation to seek health information on the Internet for individuals has beenvaried. The purpose of this paper was to explore the perspectives and experiences about onlinehealth information seeking in information technology (IT) professionals.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A qualitative case study research design was employed to examinethe behavior of 15 IT professionals from a state organization in the East Coast of the United Statesof America. Convenience sampling was used to identify the setting, and purposeful sampling wasused to select the participants. A survey questionnaire was used as a recruitment tool, and in‑depthindividual interviews with standardized semi‑structured questions were used to collect data.RESULTS: Findings illustrated that the Internet was the first source of reference for wellness andprevention information to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and to alleviate and prevent work‑relatedmusculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The themes that emerged from the study were that the ITprofessionals searched the Internet for information to self‑educate about medical conditions, tomaintain fitness, communicate with health‑care professionals, decide their treatment options, and tomake lifestyle modifications such as ergonomic adjustment of their workstation, postural adjustments,and changing negative health behaviors.CONCLUSION: The results of this study provide practical implications for organizations and healthprofessionals in providing health education to prevent WMSDs as participants sought healthinformation online to take actions and collaborate with their health‑care professionals and activelycontributed to their medical health decisions. This underscores a valuable opportunity for health‑careproviders and public health officials to become more proactive by providing their patients with qualityhealth information outside their office through the Internet by referring them to credible websitesources.