Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

There has been an exponential increase in the general population's usage of the Internet, and of information accessibility; the current demand for online consumer health information (OCHI) is unprecedented. In North America, more than 70% of adults have used the internet regularly to search for information in 2014, particularly OCHI. My purpose in this investigation was to describe negative outcomes associated with OCHI use in primary care setting, and identify potential prevention strategies from consumers', health practitioners' and health librarians' perspectives. I conducted this qualitative study in two stages. In the first stage, I recruited, through a social media survey, a sample of 19 OCHI users who had experienced negative outcomes associated with OCHI. I conducted interviews with them to understand their perspectives, and identified types of negative outcomes. In the second stage, I interviewed a convenient sample of 10 participants: seven health practitioners (three family physicians, two nurses, and two pharmacists), and three health librarians. With the support of the vignettes (stimulation of reflection and memory), I asked participants describe types of negative outcomes and identify potential preventive strategies. I found that negative outcomes of OCHI may occur at three levels: internal (such as increased worrying), interpersonal (such as a tension in the patient-physician relationship), and service-related (such as postponing a clinical encounter). Participants also proposed three types of strategies to prevent the occurrence of these negative outcomes: providing consumers with reliable OCHI, educating consumers on how to assess OCHI websites, and helping consumers present and discuss the OCHI they find with a health professional in their social network or a librarian for instance. Future research can focus on the implementation and effectiveness of the proposed strategies, which might contribute to prevent and decrease these tensions.