Relationships between the source of health information and the behavior of mothers of children under 5 years old: cross-sectional study analysis

Abstract

The aim: Is to investigate relationships between trusted sources of health information and people's behavior, including their attitudes toward vaccination and their willingness to seek medical care. Materials and methods: The responses of 4,354 mothers of children under 5 years of age from all regions of Ukraine, who participated in the Multi-Indicator Cluster Household Survey (MICS-2012) were analyzed. The respondents were divided into separate groups using two-step cluster analysis. Results: 6 clusters of respondents were identified, depending on the trusted source of health information identified by them, including those who trust only physicians (50.0%), friends (15.3%), all information channels (15.2%) or do not trust anyone (6.0%). The most important statistically significant differences in the level of vaccination coverage and willingness to seek medical care were found for a group of people who do not trust any source of information about health or trust only information from the Internet. People who trust information from physicians or pharmacy workers were the most active in vaccinating and seeking medical care. Conclusions: Communication with patients who do not trust anyone through social networks seems to be a promising way to raise awareness of this group of people about health and increase the level of trust in physicians or certain medical services.