BACKGROUND With the development of medical treatment, according to current research, there is an increasing trend of children with autism. Parents of children with autism are their main caregivers. With the deep integration of information technology and the health field, the Internet has become the preferred channel for obtaining health information due to its rich resources, convenient use and concealment, attracting more patients and their caregivers to participate in the online health information search process to assist health decision-making. OBJECTIVE This study aims to elucidate the psychological experiences of parents of children with autism during their online health information searches. The findings are intended to inform the development of targeted intervention strategies by clinical healthcare providers. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were utilized to delve into the online health information search behaviors of parents of children with autism, capturing their subjective experiences. RESULTS Analysis revealed three primary themes: Positive experiences of parents participating in online health information searches (promoting cognitive changes about the disease, convenient access to effective disease information, alleviating personal psychological anxiety); Negative experiences of online health information searches (fatigue caused by information overload, helplessness in decision-making due to homogenized information);Further expectations for online health search behavior. CONCLUSIONS The current online health information search experiences of parents of children with autism are suboptimal and require enhancement. There is a critical need to develop specialized online platforms that cater to the diverse needs of these parents.
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Lu et al. (2024) studied this question.
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