What preconception health services would the public find when searching the internet in Australia? :results from a simulated internet-search study
What preconception health services would the public find when searching the internet in Australia? :results from a simulated internet-search study
Background: Australian preventive health strategy outlines the importance of preconception health in improving health in the community, across multiple generations and places primary and community healthcare services as a central pillar to effective preconception care. However, there is no national implementation plan to see preconception care proactively offered in healthcare settings in Australia. Instead, there is evidence that most women search the internet for information about pregnancy planning and preparation. In response, this study explores the availability and characteristics of health services found by searching for preconception care online in Australia.
Method: simulated Google searches were conducted using search terms 'preconception' and the name of a city/town with a population > 50,000. Related terms, 'fertility' and 'pregnancy' were also searched. Characteristics of the health services and the information available on relevant websites were extracted and reported descriptively.
Results: the searches identified 831 website links, including 430 websites for health services. The health services were most often located in cities/towns with populations equal to or less than 200 000 (54.2%), and housing multiple health professionals (69.8%) including a specialist doctor (66.5%), nurse (20.9%), psychologist/counsellor (2.0%) and/or naturopath (13.0%). All the health services identified online explicitly mentioned women among their target populations, while 69.1% (n = 297) also referred to providing services for men or partners. More than one third of websites included blogs (36.9%) while external links were included in 10.8% of the online sites.
Conclusions: this study provides a preliminary examination of health services that may be found through internet-based searching by Australian consumers seeking health advice or support prior to becoming pregnant. Our descriptive results suggest couples may find a variety of health professionals when seeking health services for preconception care. Future research involving co-design of search terms with consumers, ongoing monitoring of health services and ensuring access to meaningful, and accurate information found through internet-searching are all necessary to ensure people of reproductive age are able to access the preconception health information and care they need.
Australia, Blogging, Community Health Services, Female, Humans, Internet, Male, Preconception Care/methods, Pregnancy, Preventive Health Services, Health literacy, Healthcare access, Health services, Preconception care
Steel, Amie
947b68e3-582e-4040-b2c0-1927f0d30932
Gibson, Harriet
ec528861-0524-495a-9379-df51b8e0d516
Adams, Jon
12b2c9e7-6fdb-41e3-8d4d-33a44ceffb3e
Schoenaker, Danielle
84b96b87-4070-45a5-9777-5a1e4e45e818
17 January 2024
Steel, Amie
947b68e3-582e-4040-b2c0-1927f0d30932
Gibson, Harriet
ec528861-0524-495a-9379-df51b8e0d516
Adams, Jon
12b2c9e7-6fdb-41e3-8d4d-33a44ceffb3e
Schoenaker, Danielle
84b96b87-4070-45a5-9777-5a1e4e45e818
Steel, Amie, Gibson, Harriet, Adams, Jon and Schoenaker, Danielle
(2024)
What preconception health services would the public find when searching the internet in Australia? :results from a simulated internet-search study.
BMC Health Services Research, 24 (1), [93].
(doi:10.1186/s12913-024-10559-2).
Abstract
Background: Australian preventive health strategy outlines the importance of preconception health in improving health in the community, across multiple generations and places primary and community healthcare services as a central pillar to effective preconception care. However, there is no national implementation plan to see preconception care proactively offered in healthcare settings in Australia. Instead, there is evidence that most women search the internet for information about pregnancy planning and preparation. In response, this study explores the availability and characteristics of health services found by searching for preconception care online in Australia.
Method: simulated Google searches were conducted using search terms 'preconception' and the name of a city/town with a population > 50,000. Related terms, 'fertility' and 'pregnancy' were also searched. Characteristics of the health services and the information available on relevant websites were extracted and reported descriptively.
Results: the searches identified 831 website links, including 430 websites for health services. The health services were most often located in cities/towns with populations equal to or less than 200 000 (54.2%), and housing multiple health professionals (69.8%) including a specialist doctor (66.5%), nurse (20.9%), psychologist/counsellor (2.0%) and/or naturopath (13.0%). All the health services identified online explicitly mentioned women among their target populations, while 69.1% (n = 297) also referred to providing services for men or partners. More than one third of websites included blogs (36.9%) while external links were included in 10.8% of the online sites.
Conclusions: this study provides a preliminary examination of health services that may be found through internet-based searching by Australian consumers seeking health advice or support prior to becoming pregnant. Our descriptive results suggest couples may find a variety of health professionals when seeking health services for preconception care. Future research involving co-design of search terms with consumers, ongoing monitoring of health services and ensuring access to meaningful, and accurate information found through internet-searching are all necessary to ensure people of reproductive age are able to access the preconception health information and care they need.
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s12913-024-10559-2
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Accepted/In Press date: 3 January 2024
Published date: 17 January 2024
Additional Information:
Funding information:
DS is supported by the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research (NIHR) Southampton Biomedical Research Centre [IS-BRC-1215-20004]. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. AS is supported by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT220100610). Partial support for this funding was provided by the University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Health Seed Funding Research Grant Scheme.
Keywords:
Australia, Blogging, Community Health Services, Female, Humans, Internet, Male, Preconception Care/methods, Pregnancy, Preventive Health Services, Health literacy, Healthcare access, Health services, Preconception care
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 486422
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486422
ISSN: 1472-6963
PURE UUID: 9d5237c9-7b9c-476d-8c42-3ad57c06650d
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Date deposited: 22 Jan 2024 17:32
Last modified: 13 Aug 2024 01:58
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Author:
Amie Steel
Author:
Harriet Gibson
Author:
Jon Adams
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