ONLINE HEALTH INFORMATION SEEKING BY PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS IN PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA.

Background: Parental use of online search engines to get information on diagnosis and treatment options of their children's illnesses, a common practice in developed countries, is creeping into our society, especially in the face of chronic and life-threatening illnesses. Health-related information on the internet is largely unregulated and disease-specific information accessed online may be hard to understand and assimilate by parents making it needful to crosscheck such information with the child's healthcare provider.

Objectives: This study was undertaken to ascertain the proportion of parents of children with neurological disorders browsing the internet for medical information and factors associated with this behaviour.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the paediatric neurology clinic of the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, consecutively recruiting 106 child-parent pairs attending the clinic. A questionnaire was used to collect information on biodata and their use of the internet to assess information on their children's diseases. Data was analysed with SPSS 23, with statistical significance set at P value < 0.05.

Result: The mean ages of the children, mothers, and fathers were 5.5±4.6 years, 37.2±6.9 years, and 44.6±6.9 years respectively. Most mothers (63.2%) and fathers (61.3%) attained tertiary education and were of middle socioeconomic class. Of the 54(50.9%) parents who had browsed the internet, 49(90.7%) used Google, 5 (92.6%), used their phones, but only 11(20.4%) discussed information obtained with a physician. Fifteen (27.8%) parents browsed the internet to conveniently obtain medical information while 50.8% were satisfied with their online search. Tertiary education among parents and middle socioeconomic status was significantly associated with browsing the internet.

Conclusion: A good proportion of enlightened parents are browsing the internet for medical information but few are verifying this information with physicians, which may have untoward consequences in the future such as the adoption of non-scientific harmful practices.