Case Study of information Avoidance in Medical Students

Information behavior is a term used to describe many methods of human interaction with information. Information avoidance (IA) is also one of the aspects of information behavior and human interaction with information. IA is a set of selective behaviors and actions intended to stop, limit, and delay the search, the encounter, the processing, and the use of information. The main purpose of this study was to investigate medical students’ IA in the study of scientific articles.

Students of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences took part in the present study, which was an applied survey. The sampling technique for this survey was random. Students completed electronic questionnaires for both IA and Need for Cognition (NFC). One-way analysis of variance, simple linear regression and multivariate regression were used for statistical analysis.

Across all students, IA and NFC averaged 2.21 and 3.55, respectively. Results showed that students' grades were associated with the level of IA. There is a significant relationship between IA and NFC, which decreases with the student's grade.

IA decreases with increasing NFC, as well as increasing grades of medical students. This process can be accelerated for lower grading. It is suggested that information literacy training courses, library tours, and introduction of specialized databases will be held for them.