Immigrants and Information Needs: Health Information Needs of Immigrants admitted to Health care Centers of Medical Sciences Universities in Iran

Regarding to importance of health information in recent years and necessity of access to the information on special and vulnerable groups like foreign immigrants, this research aimed to study health information needs of immigrants admitted to Health care Centers of the Medical Sciences Universities.
This descriptive study was carried out among Iraqi and Afghans formal immigrants who live in Iran. Researcher made questionnaire was used to collect data and T-test and ANOVA were applied to analyze data using SPSS.
There was no significant difference between health information needs and demographic factors. “Information on infectious diseases” was recognized as an important needs about diseases with the highest average score (4.09). Schools and Universities were found as important sources for health information of immigrants. Lack of immigrants’ knowledge on traditional sources for hygiene and health with the mean score of 3.93 was detected as the most important challenge for immigrants to receive health information.
According to research findings, we can conclude that immigrants’ health information needs are at the high level. The result of this study could help the authorities and health information policy makers in planning to select, collect and organize the health information and disseminate it to libraries and information centers to provide health information needs to improve their knowledge on health.