Journal of the Korean Society for information Management (정보관리학회지)

Korean Society for Information Management (한국정보관리학회)
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An Exploratory Study of Health Information Seeking Behaviors among International Students in Korea

국내 거주 해외유학생의 건강정보추구행위에 관한 탐색적 연구

  • 윤정원 (전북대학교 문헌정보학과)
  • Received : 2021.12.09
  • Accepted : 2021.12.16
  • Published : 2021.12.30
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Abstract

Despite the increasing number of international students in Korea, there is a lack of research on the health information-seeking behavior of international students. This study examined the health information search behavior of international students in Korea through a questionnaires and in-depth interviews adopting Critical Incident Technique. Most frequent health information needs that the participants experienced were related to Covid-19 and locating doctors/hospitals. The difficulties in seeking health information were language barriers, lack of knowledge of the Korean medical system, insufficient or overflowing information on the Internet. However, despite the language barrier, international students mainly used Korean sources (friends/family, websites, social media) for searching health information. In order to search health information on Korean websites, they used Google Translator or got help from bilingual friends/family members. The participants who have lived in Korea for a shorter period of time or who have lower Korean language proficiency tend to obtain health information through the community on social networks; whereas the longer the period of residence in Korea and the better the Korean language proficiency, the more likely to use websites. Only 28% of the participants gave positive answers to the question asking their confidence in finding the health information they needed. It is discussed how to help international students find accurate and credible health information.

국내의 외국인 유학생들의 증가에도 불구하고, 유학생들의 건강정보탐색행위에 대한 연구는 부족한 실정이다. 본 연구는 한국에 거주하는 외국인 유학생의 건강정보탐색행위를 설문지와 결정적사건기법을 이용한 면담을 병행하여 조사하였다. 최근 경험한 건강정보 요구 중에는 코로나와 관련된 정보요구(코로나 검사, 증상, 백신)와 병원을 찾는 요구가 가장 많이 보고되었다. 건강정보탐색 과정에서 경험한 어려움으로는 언어의 문제가 가장 많았고, 한국 의료시스템에 대한 이해의 부족, 인터넷상의 정보 불충분 또는 정보과잉 등도 보고되었다. 언어의 장벽에도 불구하고, 유학생들은 한국어 정보원(친구/가족, 웹사이트, 소셜미디어)을 주요 건강정보원으로 사용하였다. 유학생들은 구글번역기를 사용하거나, 이중언어가 가능한 친구/가족의 도움을 받아 한국어 정보원을 통해 건강정보를 탐색하는 것으로 조사되었다. 한국 체류기간이 짧거나 한국어 능력이 부족한 경우, 소셜네트워크 상의 커뮤니티를 통해 건강정보를 얻는 경향을 보이는 반면, 한국 체류기간이 길고 한국어 능력이 좋을수록 웹사이트를 사용하는 것으로 나타났다. 필요한 건강정보를 찾는데 있어 어느 정도 자신감을 가지는가에 대한 질문에는 참가자의 28%만이 긍정적인 대답을 하였다. 본 연구 결과를 통한 유학생들의 건강정보추구행위에 대한 이해를 바탕으로 유학생들이 필요한 건강정보를 탐색하는데 도움을 줄 수 있는 방안에 관한 제언을 제시하였다.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

이 논문은 2021년도 전북대학교 연구기반 조성비 지원에 의하여 연구되었음.

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