Are They Important? Patients’ Communication Barriers to Discussing Online Health Information During Consultations

Figures & data

Table 1. Importance, performance and QII.

Barriers	Mean importance score	Performance score	QII barriers^1
Predisposing factors
When I prefer to discuss other matters with my doctor than the health information I looked up online	3.35 (SD = 1.62)	53.5%	1.92
When I feel I am a burden to my doctor because I looked up health information online	4.30 (SD = 1.82)	10%	0.52
When I feel embarrassed for looking up health information online	3.93 (SD = 1.83)	10.6%	0.47
When there is (too) little time to discuss the online health information	4.42 (SD = 1.81)	30.5%	1.63
When I fear my doctor thinks I am too concerned because I looked up health information online	3.51 (SD = 1.66)	16.3%	0.70
Enabling factors
When I think the online information is inaccurate	3.67 (SD = 1.83)	26.6%	1.19
When I have read conflicting health information online	3.02 (SD = 1.61)	22.4%	0.81
Behavior
When my doctor is offended because I looked up health information online	4.30 (SD = 1.99)	9.1%	0.46
When my doctor is skeptical about the health information I looked up online	3.94 (SD = 1.79)	19.0%	0.91
When my doctor doesn’t take me seriously when I have looked up health information online	4.54 (SD = 4.86)	12.4%	0.68
When my doctor is offended because I looked up health information online	4.51 (SD = 1.91)	10.3%	0.56
When my doctor is uninterested in the online health information	4.53 (SD = 1.80)	12.7%	0.71
When my doctor does not want to listen to what I have to say about the online health information	4.90 (SD = 1.76)	10.3%	0.63
When my doctor was not open to a discussion about online health information during a previous consultation	5.22 (SD = 1.74)	11.5%	0.77
When my doctor laughs at me for looking up health information online	4.73 (SD = 2.12)	5.7%	0.33

¹A QII score of .60 or more indicated a relatively important barrier and a QII score of 1.75 or more an important barrier.