title: A profile of inactive information seekers on influenza prevention: a survey of health care workers in Central Kentucky.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study developed a profile of inactive information seekers by characterising how they are different from active seekers, identifying possible determinants of inactive seekers and understanding characteristics of frequently asked influenza-related questions.
  
  
  METHODS
  A survey and follow-up interviews were conducted between December 2010 and January 2011. A total of 307 health care workers in three hospitals in Central Kentucky (USA) are included.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four study groups were formed based on their information-seeking and vaccination uptake status: (1) Inactive Seekers with Vaccination (N = 141); (2) Inactive Seekers without Vaccination (N = 49); (3) Active Seekers with Vaccination (N = 107); and (4) Active Seekers without Vaccination (N = 10). Inactive Seekers without Vaccination are found to be least responsive to health outcomes. Inactive Seeker groups do not prefer to use sources such as Internet or family/friends. In predicting inactive seekers, Information Needs and Knowledge Perception made significant contributions to prediction. The most frequently asked questions included information about survival duration of influenza virus (N = 25) followed by the incubation period for influenza (N = 24).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Profiling inactive seekers can serve as a way to better design customised influenza information sources and services for health care workers, thus giving hospitals through medical libraries additional tools to reduce the spread of influenza.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biomedical Informatics, School of Library and Information Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
authors.forename: Sujin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Real
mesh_terms: D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000517:prevention & control*; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007629:Kentucky; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014611:Vaccination
keywords: health information needs; information seeking behaviour; information sources; surveys