The Characteristics Of Internet Usage Of Surgical Patients Accessing Health Information

Objectives: Patients who are recommended to undergo surgical treatment try to fulfill their information requirements on health status on the Internet with an increasing tendency. In this study, it was aimed to determine the features of health information search on the Internet by patients who are under treatment at surgical clinics. Methods: The sample group of this descriptive type research consisted of 219 patients in 9 surgical clinics. The data of the study were collected with a questionnaire of 39 questions. Results: The main and most useful information source of the patients is the physician. While more than half of the patients stated that the nurse informed them at various levels in the clinic, 76.9% stated that they wanted to obtain health information from the web sites prepared by the nurses. It was determined that 46.1% of all patients participating in the study and 97.1% of patients using the Internet were found to have done an online health search. Conclusions: A significant proportion of patients use the Internet to search for health information. It is a worrying finding that only a small section of patients expressed that the health information on the ？nternet may be distorted or incorrect