A Review of models and theories of health information seeking behavior

One of the ways for preventing diseases is the transfer of health information by educating the patients and encouraging them to search for related information. Knowledge of patient information seeking behavior can provide health and health information experts with valuable information used to improve the patients' health. Although due to the abundance of health information, it is easily possible to prevent some chronic diseases, many people lose their lives or suffer serious complications from these diseases due to lack of knowledge about prevention methods. Therefore informing people about the progress of these diseases and useful prevention methods is of outmost importance. Investigating the patients' information seeking behavior and identifying their information seeking patterns can provide us with useful strategies for effective transfer of information to the patients, thus improving the patients' self-management and prevent progression of their disease. The aim of the current study is to introduce models and theories related to information seeking behavior of patients.