Chinese College Students’ Source Selection and Use in Searching for Health-related Information Online

•This study focused on Chinese college students’ source selection and use behaviors when searching for health information online, and particularly we distinguished the selection and use behaviors.•It is found that students’ health-related source selection and use behaviors had the characteristics of being over-reliance on sources in Baidu's ecosystem and over-reliance on Social Q&A webpages.•Authoritative and professional health information in Chinese is less selected and used, while Wiki-type webpages are most likely to be used after being selected.•Task type showed a significant impact on students’ selection and use of three specific source types. They selected and used more Wiki-type webpages for receptive tasks, but more Social Q&A webpages and News webpage when searching to address critical health issues. This lab-based experimental study examined college students’ source selection and use behaviors when searching for health-related information using a major Chinese search engine, Baidu.com. Participants searched for four health-related tasks, with two being receptive tasks and two critical tasks. Five types of sources were identified from students’ search logs: Social Q&A webpages (QA), Professional Health webpages (PH), News webpages (NW), Wiki-type webpages (WT), and Other. Students’ source selection and use behaviors were distinguished based on their clicking and writing behaviors during the search process. The results showed that Chinese college students heavily rely on sources in Baidu's ecosystem, with Baidu Knows, Baidu Library, Baidu Scholar, Baidu Experience, and Baidu Baike all being selected and used frequently. Overall, among all five types of sources, students selected and used Social Q&A webpages the most frequently, but the likelihood of Wiki-type webpages to be used after being selected was the highest. Professional Health Webpages specialized in providing professional medical and health care information were less selected and used than expected. Task types had a significant impact on source selection and use. Students selected and used more Wiki-type webpages for receptive tasks and more Social Q&A and News webpages to address critical tasks. More efforts are needed to improve Chinese college students’ eHealth literacy and optimize the current online health information environment.