ABSTRACT

Today individuals can easily access to wide range of information about their health status, disease or treatments by internet. The aim of the study is determination of perceptions and attitudes of healthcare professionals regarding health information on the internet. This descriptive study was conducted in January-March 2013 with 103 healthcare professionals. Data about participants’ demographic features, internet use, opinions and experiences of health information on the internet were analyzed with SPSS 15.0. “Health information on internet positively influences individuals” statement was agreed by 36.3%, “Health information on internet is generally accurate” statement was disagreed by 41.2% of participants. Leading intents of patients ask questions to participants about health information on internet were stated to be “Looking for an opinion about the information” (53.4%), “Looking for a more equipped physician” (34.0%), “Demanding tests to be done” (34.0%). More than half of the participants stated that they refused to do what patients demanded in the light of health information on internet. It is recommended that healthcare providers should give up-to-date and evidence based health information on their official websites in order to feed patients with accurate, understandable and reliable health information.