Studying health-related internet and mobile device use using web logs and smartphone records

PloS One
Ruben L Bach, Alexander Wenz

Abstract

Many people use the internet to seek information that will help them understand their body and their health. Motivations for such behaviors are numerous. For example, users may wish to figure out a medical condition by searching for symptoms they experience. Similarly, they may seek more information on how to treat conditions they have been diagnosed with or seek resources on how to live a healthy life. With the ubiquitous availability of the internet, searching and finding relevant information is easier than ever before and a widespread phenomenon. To understand how people use the internet for health-related information, we use data from a sample of 1,959 internet users. A unique combination of data containing four months of users' browsing histories and mobile application use on computers and mobile devices allows us to study which health websites they visited, what information they searched for and which health applications they used. Survey data inform us about users' socio-demographic background, medical conditions and other health-related behaviors. Results show that women, young users, users with a university education and nonsmokers are most likely to use the internet and mobile applications for health-related purposes....Continue Reading

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Citations

Jan 14, 2021·Journal of Medical Internet Research·Amanda HunsakerMarina Micheli
Aug 11, 2020·Journal of Affective Disorders·Hongguang Chen, Konglai Zhang
Feb 5, 2021·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Jacopo CiaffiFrancesco Ursini
Feb 5, 2021·Psychiatry Research·Kammarauche Asuzu, M Zachary Rosenthal
Jul 3, 2021·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Russell MillerMasamine Jimba

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
scraping

Software Mentioned

Android Playstore
iOS
Microsoft Edge
Chrome
Webshrinker
Safari
Firefox
Google Trends
Yahoo
DuckDuckGo

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