Hospitals need to customise care according to patients’ differing information-seeking behaviour

INTRODUCTION

Our aim was to describe how often patients seek information about their disease in connection with contact to a hospital and to elucidate how information-seeking behaviour is related to the patients’ perception of this contact.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study was based on patient surveys from the Danish county of Aarhus from 1999 to 2006 including eight public hospitals. The patients’ information-
seeking behaviour was related to patient characteristics, organisational context and patient perceptions.

RESULTS

Among the 75,769 patients who responded, 33.4% had actively sought information. The frequency of patients seeking information increased from 24.4% in 1999 to 38.3% in 2006 with a variation between organisational units ranging from 7.7% to 81.8%. The share of critical patients among those who actively sought information was 23.7% in 1999 and 18.1% in 2006 compared with 12.9% and 11.3% critical patients, respectively, among those who did not.

CONCLUSION

Having sought information correlated with negative patient perceptions. Despite convergence, differences between the perceptions of active and passive information
seekers still remain. The health-care system should be prepared to serve patients who have different levels of knowledge.

Practice implications

The health-care system should continuously improve the service provided to patients with different levels of knowledge and attitudes towards involvement. We recommend to routinely ask patients about their information seeking and to include questions about patients’ information seeking behaviour in patient satisfaction surveys.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

not relevant.

FUNDING

financial support for research and preparation provided by TrygFonden, Momsfonden and the Central Denmark Region. None of the funding sources had any involvement in study design, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of
report, or decision to submit paper for publication.

CORRESPONDENCE: Erik Riiskjær. E-mail: erik.riiskjaer@stab.rm.dk.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: see www.danmedj.dk

Reference: Dan Med J 2014;61(2):A4787