How Work-Related and Personal Motivated Information Needs Shape Trust Towards Government-Sponsored Medical Information Sources?

Abstract

Government regulation of the clinical practice is a characteristic aspect of the medical profession. Regardless of whether this regulation derives from government sourced guidelines or materials from government-sponsored institutions, it results to a high production of information resources (institutional information resources) which are disseminated to the clinical stuff in order to ensure compliance. In that case the issue of credibility of this information resources might arise since medical practice is characterized by a high frequency of change. The later involves continuous effort by the clinical staff which is motivated by work related factors (e.g. need of compliance) or personal motivation (need for self-improvement). In this study we consider a simple trust model for an information resource where we assume that perceived trust is a direct antecedent of perceived credibility. We evaluate whether work-related or personal motivated factors influence the relation between perceived credibility and trust towards institutional information sources and how the effect of each factor affects this relation. Findings suggest that work-related factors have higher impact on the relation between credibility and trust than personal motivation factors while at the same time are stressing the important role of hospital libraries as a dissemination point for government-sponsored information resources.

Keywords: Health Information Seeking, Trust, Government information, Hospital Libraries