A pilot study comparing parent and adolescent online health information seeking behaviours in elective pediatric surgical situations

Purpose Little is known of how children seek health information. This study evaluates online health information (OHI) seeking behaviours in adolescents undergoing major elective surgical procedures and compares responses within parent–child dyads. Methods With institutional approval, we prospectively surveyed parents of children admitted to our institution for major elective operations between November 2017 and November 2018, using convenience sampling. Patients aged 12 years and above were also invited. Each respondent completed an anonymized modification of a previously published survey on Internet usage. Chi squared tests were used for categorical data, with significance at P value