Factors Influencing Behavioral Intention in Online Health Information Seeking among Public University Students

Medical issues or any health-related matters can be derived not only from professionals as the main source in secure the information, but technological advancement system makes people turned to the Internet as the platform to seek for a diverse range of health-related information (HRI). The number of educated society has continued to grow tremendously for them to explore thousands of health websites which they can refer to related diseases. However, HRI is not given focus for its importance compared with other online activities. Lacking in health literacy also contributes to the society weakness in understanding the health articles posted over the Internet. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aims to assess demographic profile as the factors influencing behavioral intention in online health information seeking among undergraduate students. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 150 students. This study has found two significant factors that influenced the behavioral intention in seeking HRI. The findings therefore will highlight certain issues on the importance of expanding knowledge such as health and information literacy and to promote self-care management among the students.