title: What sources do adolescents turn to for information about their health concerns?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adolescents are developmentally normatively interested in information about sexuality and other health-related issues. In the absence of available health programming, identifying the sources of information that youth are currently accessing will help adolescent health researchers understand where youth 'are,' thereby informing where and how future interventions can be targeted. This is particularly important in resource-limited settings, such as Iran, where funding for public health programming is scant. This study aimed to examine primary and preferred sources of adolescents' health information queries and identify health topics in which they are most interested.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2011, a random sample of 915 adolescents, aged 14-18 years, completed anonymous, self-administered questionnaires.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mothers (51.11%) and same-sex friends (40.11%) were both the primary as well as the preferred source of health information for adolescents. More than one in three adolescents identified media information sources, including books (39.6%) and the Internet (37.9%), as their primary and preferred sources. The most common topic adolescents sought information about was sexuality issues. Younger adolescents preferred receiving information from parents, whereas older adolescents preferred friends as sources for information [X2=9.3, p=0.009]. No age differences were noted in using media sources (p>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings indicate future interventions should integrate some if not all of these sources [both people (mothers, same-sex friends) and media (books, the Internet)] to deliver evidenced-based health information.
authors.forename: Azam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baheiraei
authors.forename: Elham
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Khoori
authors.forename: Abbas Rahimi
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Foroushani
authors.forename: Fazlollah
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ahmadi
authors.forename: Michele L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ybarra
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D003146:Communications Media; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers; D060728:Reproductive Health; D012737:Sex Factors