Epistemology, epistemic belief, personal epistemology, and epistemics: A review of concepts as they impact information behavior research

BACKGROUND Information behavior studies in modern medicine are indispensable not only for medical professionals but also in considering health outcomes for patients and health consumers. However, quantitative surveys do not provide sufficient information, and the medical information available on the Internet has not been analyzed in detail. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between information behavior and satisfaction with treatment decisions in patients and their family members and explore the characteristics of information behavior involved in treatment decisions. METHODS A retrospective, cross-sectional survey was conducted using a questionnaire (58 respondents, response rate 59.2%) for 105 parents of children with cancer at a children’s hospital in Japan. Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine whether information behavior influenced satisfaction with treatment decisions, and correlation analysis was performed to examine the relationships between information behaviors. The analysis included 15 information sources and information behavior measured as the communicative health literacy, critical health literacy, and Shared Decision Making measured using the Functional, Communicative and Critical Health Literacy Scale and the Treatment Decision Satisfaction Scale consisting of 6 items. RESULTS The results regarding the RQ1 showed that the attending physician (P = .044), medical institution websites (P = .038), medical books/scientific papers (including those published in English; P = .020), and communicative health literacy (which reflects information utilization capability; P = .048), influenced satisfaction with treatment decisions. The results regarding the RQ2 showed that parents who used the attending physician as an information source did not receive information from other sources apart from a hospital medical professional. On the other hand, parents who used medical institution websites as information sources received various descriptive information. CONCLUSIONS We identified Internet-based information sources that influenced satisfaction with treatment decisions. We identified that the parent's information behavior tended to have a positive influence on the treatment decision when the attending physician and the medical institution’s Health Practitioner, HP, were the information sources, or when they recognized that there was a high communicative HL and utilized the information. Furthermore, the variables used to measure information behavior were divided into several groups based on association. Regarding satisfaction with treatment decisions correlating with each other, information behavior reflected the possibility of establishing links with information sources with direct influence, related information sources, and information utilization capability.

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