A social constructionist approach to the study of information use as discursive action
ISIC '96 Proceedings of an international conference on Information seeking in context
The production of ‘context’ in information seeking research: a metatheoretical view
Information Processing and Management: an International Journal - Special issue on Information Seeking In Context (ISIC)
Toward wellness: women seeking health information
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology - Part I: Information seeking research
Human information behavior: Integrating diverse approaches and information use
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology - Research Articles
Annual Review of Information Science and Technology
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Focusing on information behavior in a context where medical evidence is explicitly evolving (management of the menopause transition), this investigation explored how women interact with and make sense of uncertain health information mediated by formal and informal sources. Based on interviews with 28 information seekers and 12 health professionals (HPs), findings demonstrate that participants accessed and valued a wide range of information sources, moved fluidly between formal and informal sources, and trust was strengthened through interaction and referral between sources. Participants were motivated to seek information to prepare for formal encounters with HPs, evaluate and/or supplement information already gathered, establish that they were “normal,” understand and address the physical embodiment of their experiences, and prepare for future information needs. Findings revealed four strategies used to construct sense from health information mediated by the many information sources encountered and accessed on an everyday basis: women assumed analytic and experiential “postures”; they valued social contexts for learning and knowledge construction; information consistency was used as a heuristic representing accuracy and credibility; and an important feature of sense making was source complementarity. Implications for health information literacy and patient education are discussed. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.