Investigating the Role of Online Information Search Skills on the Health Information Literacy of Pregnant Women During Pregnancy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Maryam Okhovati 1
Najmeh Izadifar 2
1 Associate Professor, Medical Library and Information Sciences, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran
2 MSc,, Medical Library and Information Sciences, Kohnouj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Kohnouj, Iran
10.48305/him.2024.42311.1159
Abstract
Introduction: Maintaining the health of mother and fetus during pregnancy requires knowledge of pregnancy care. This study endeavors to investigate the role of online news and information search skills in the area of pregnancy of pregnant women in Kohnouj in improving their health information search behavior during pregnancy.
Methods: This research is a semi-experimental type (pre-test-post-test with a control group). The statistical population of the research is pregnant women in the Kohnuj. The sample was 48 pregnant women who were randomly selected and divided into two intervention and control groups. The instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its Cronbach's alpha coefficient was equal to 0.828.
Results: The mean scores of mothers' health literacy increased slightly in the control group after educational interventions, but the increase was higher in the intervention group. Besides, information search skills after educational interventions in the control group increased little, but in the intervention group, this increase was high. In other words, teaching information search skills to mothers in the intervention group has been effective in increasing and improving their health information search skills in the field of pregnancy.
Conclusion: Information search skills training had a positive effect on increasing the level of awareness of pregnant women to take care of themselves and the fetus. As such, it led to the improvement of their search for health information in the field of pregnancy during the pregnancy period.

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