Health Literacy and Cyberchondria

Introduction

In the modern world, information and communication technologies have created ‘the global village’ where people can communicate with others as if they were sitting next to them (McLuhan & Powers, 1992). Scientific and technological developments in industry brought about revolutionary innovations in the last quarter of the 20th century. Among these innovations, the developing and newly emerging technological products have created changes in all areas. Information Technologies (IT), internet technologies and communication technologies are some of them. Especially communication technologies and the internet have changed the lives of human societies greatly.

The internet is one of the most important technological platforms in wider digital development. Today, the internet occupies a place as an environment where people from all over the world easily connect, exchange information, communicate and shop (Başlar, 2013). Thanks to the internet, the opportunity to access information has increased and thus, almost all services that people need from digital media have started to be provided. In the digital age we are in, people use digital products every day and consume these products quickly.

In the ‘Digital in 2019’ report published by We Are Social and Hootsuite; it is stated that there are 4.38 billion active internet users in the world and this constitutes approximately 57% of the world population (Dijilopedi, 2019).

According to the Turkey's internet usage habits of research, which was conducted by TurkStat, the results of ‘Information Technologies Usage in Households’ showed that the rate of having internet access from home was 83.3% in 2018, while this rate increased by 5% to 88.3% in 2019 (TUIK, 2019; 2020).

On the other hand, there has been a great increase in health information searches on the internet. Studies show that the Internet is a valuable source of medical information. A 2019 study of TurkStat investigated the personal means of individuals using the internet and it is seen that 65.9% of men and 73.2% of women search for information about health (TUIK, 2019). Studies have found that women use the internet more frequently than men to do research on health, for purposes of internet use (Durak-Batıgün et al., 2018). However, it was revealed that a total of 69.3% of health-related information searches were made.

The benefits of the technological tools used today are undeniable. However, while technologies contribute to our lifestyles with their benefits, they may also contain risks for our health. The internet has increased the amount and convenience of accessing medical information but has not improved the quality of available information at the desired level. Non-evidence-based information on the internet can also lead to a loss of confidence in modern medicine (Tüter, 2019). Studies report that those searching for health information online are more likely to have health problems. In the study of Muse et al. (2012), it was stated that searching for online health information increased health anxiety.