Information Seeking Behavior of Health Professionals Encountering COVID-19 Crisis and Analyzing the Content of Messages Sent on Social Media

Objective: Social media today is one of the important media for informing epidemics. This study identifies the information-seeking behavior of health professionals and analyzes the content of messages sent on the WhatsApp social network. Materials and Methods: This is a case study and content analysis research done using the descriptive-analytical method. Its statistical population was all the messages exchanged in WhatsApp groups of health professionals of Golestan University of Medical Sciences during the coronavirus crisis. The content analysis method of the exchanged messages in the studied groups was used to collect the data. During the analysis, 1339 messages were entered into the study. The data were then clustered, coded, and classified based on the available messages. Results: More than 20% of the messages presented were in the COVID-19 prevention category. Also, among the presented sub-topics, the COVID vaccine, with 4.93% of the total messages, had attracted the most attention from subject experts. Only 14.71% of the messages were provided with reference to a specific source, and the other messages were personal comments or non-source topics. Conclusion: Methods of preventing COVID-19 infection continue to be at the forefront of the attention of health professionals, and the focus of these experts is on the topics presented in this area. Web-based platforms such as websites and social networks also play a very important role in meeting the information needs of researchers, especially in the field of COVID-19, and therefore, attention to the provision of scientific and approved content on the Web is very important