Background and Aim: Health information seeking behavior can be influenced by several factors and variables such as personality traits, beliefs, values, tendencies, contextual factors and personal emotions. Health information has a direct relationship with the quality of life of people in society, it can be influential in decisions related to personal and social health and improve people’s performance in this field. This study aimed to determine the relationship between personality types of graduate students of Isfahan University of medical Sciences (IUMS) and their health information seeking behavior based on the Miller model.
Materials and Methods: This was an applied survey study. The study population was all graduate students of IUMS. The sample size was determined using the Morgan table of 297 people. Data collection tools are Neo Five Personality Factor Questionnaire and Miller Information Behavior Questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS software.
Results: The results showed that there is an inverse relationship between personality type “Psychotic” and the component of “active search for health information”. Also there is a direct relationship between persons who are “Eager for new experiences” and “conscientiousness” with the component of “active search for health information”. But there is no significant relationship between personality types “extroversion” and “agreeability” with the components of health informing behavior. The studied students are not responsible and conscientious in terms of personality type, they often prefer solitude and are introverted and conservative. But more than half of them are balanced in the dimension of “agreeability”.
Conclusion: This study showed that people who are eager for new experiences and conscientious, search health information actively, but Psychotic persons are not willing to be active in seeking health information This means that the more responsible and conscientious people are, or the more eager they are for new experiences, the more actively they search for health information. Therefore, it is better for health policy makers to plan in such a way that the necessary health information is provided to them interactively based on the personality of the people.
