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e‐Health and new moms: Contextual factors associated with sources of health information
Author(s) -
Walker Lorraine O.,
Mackert Michael S.,
Ahn Jisoo,
Vaughan Misha W.,
Sterling Bobbie S.,
Guy Sarah,
Hendrickson Sherry
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
public health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.471
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1525-1446
pISSN - 0737-1209
DOI - 10.1111/phn.12347
Subject(s) - ethnic group , public health , psychology , health education , preference , health information national trends survey , health information , health care , medicine , nursing , sociology , political science , anthropology , law , economics , microeconomics
Objective Guided by the Uses and Gratifications approach, to examine mothers’ use and preference of e‐Health media, and associated contextual factors. Design and Sample Cross‐sectional survey of 165 mothers (White, African‐American, and Hispanic) from a stratified random sample. Measures Use of online media about mother – baby care; favorite websites about motherhood and best‐liked features of Web sites; channel preferences (Web site, postal mail, text) for receiving three types of health information; and contextual factors, e.g., education. Results Media use ranged from 96% for health information searches about babies to 46% for YouTube viewing about mother – baby topics. Contextual factors, such as education, were associated with media use. Babycenter was the most frequently reported favorite Web site and rich, relevant information was the best‐liked feature. Across three health topics (weight, stress/depression, parenting) mothers preferred receiving information by Web site, followed by postal mail and least by text messaging (χ 2 statistics, p < .001). Stress and race/ethnicity were among factors associated with preferences. Conclusions Mothers widely used e‐Health related media, but use was associated with contextual factors. In public health efforts to reach new mothers, partnering with mother‐favored Web sites, focusing on audience‐relevant media, and adopting attributes of successful sites are recommended strategies.