Background:

Consumers regularly seek online health information. Systematic reviews in public health and oncology, and on decision aids, suggest the use of targeted information improves knowledge, participation in health care and health. However, little is known about the outcomes associated with information-use in primary care (outside shared decision-making aids). Thus, for primary healthcare patients, what are the outcomes associated with the use of targeted (vs non-targeted) online consumer health information?

Objective:

Identify types of patient health outcomes and related conditions (context, information-seeking, use).

Methods:

- Participatory systematic mixed studies review (integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence).
- Eligibility criteria: qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods study; English or French; 1990 to 2014; community-based primary health care; online consumer health information-use.
- Information sources: MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, LISA, and grey literature.
- Search strategy built by four specialized librarians.
- Selection (DistillerSR) and critical appraisal (Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool) of included studies by two independent researchers.
- Data extraction and synthesis: Deductive-inductive qualitative thematic data analysis by four researchers, and disambiguation of themes.

Results:

Flow diagram (Fig 1): 50 included studies with diverse designs, four concern targeted information (one non-randomized, two quantitative descriptive, and one qualitative). Inter-rater reliability scores (kappa) indicate substantial agreement between researchers for selection (0.62) and appraisal (0.67). The qualitative synthesis suggests key conditions and negative/positive outcomes (e.g. decreased/increased worries).

Conclusions:

Results will allow us to explore ‘condition-outcome’ configurations (content and Boolean analysis). Using a mixed-methods research design, this is the first systematic review to explore outcomes of targeted online consumer health information-use in primary care. This will lead to design a tool to help patients for finding and using (e.g. with partners or clinicians) information such as decision aids.