Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction
Nowadays, human life is influenced by information, and the acquisition and optimal use of information is as valuable as wealth and power. All sciences need information to survive and progress. Medicine is no exception to this. Medical science is always developing based on information. Information in this field is very valuable for doctors, students and patients. Despite the importance of specialized information, some medical students may not use it or not be interested in information. The people with lack of appetite for information (information anorexia) severely limit the acquisition and use of information and lose the opportunity to receive new information and often rely on a few limited sources of information. Information anorexia is one of the dimensions of information behavior, because information behavior includes searching for information to satisfy their unintentional and intentional needs.
Failure to use correct and up-to-date information in medicine causes disruption in the process of diagnosis and treatment of patients and, as a result, threatens the physical and mental health of the society, leading to an increase in economic costs and social harms. The present study aims to investigate the information anorexia of students in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences (HUMS).
Methods
This study using grounded theory method was conducted in 2019. Purposive and snowball sampling continued until theoretical saturation which led to the selection of 27 samples in three groups: Faculty members of information science and epistemology (n=11), faculty members of psychology (n=6), and students in general medicine (Second-year and higher, n=10) in HUMS. In-depth semi-structured interviews were used for collecting information. After each interview, open coding was done by examining their transcribes. In this step, 651 codes were created. Then, axial coding was conducted by combining the codes and placing them in abstract elementary classes (subcategories). Then, selective coding was performed. In the last stage, the qualitative model of the study was presented.
Results
Information anorexia of medical students was selected as a central phenomenon. Based on the qualitative model of the study (Figure 1), causal conditions included psychological/ cognitive/motivational state and skills of students. Intervening conditions included the higher education system, the student’s field of study, and society. Contextual conditions included characteristics of information, characteristics of information sources, and problems affected by the information age. The strategies included no participation in scientific and research activities, relying on limited resources, and ignoring new specialized information. The consequences of information anorexia included harmful economic effects, harmful scientific and research effects, threats to physical and mental health, harmful social effects, and decreased scientific morale.
Discussion
In this study, the medical student is the most important element in the information anorexia model; a medical student with high motivation and appropriate mental, cognitive, skill and knowledge level can reduce or moderate the effects of external factors and maintain his/her appetite for information. The performance of teachers in various fields, especially research, student evaluation, the way of interaction with technologies and their application in teaching affect medical students’ information anorexia. The poor infrastructure and lack of necessary educational facilities also had an impact on their information anorexia. It is recommended to use lifelong education in the higher education system in order to reduce the information anorexia of medical students. In this regard, training and strengthening of learning skills such as critical thinking and information literacy should be provided in the form of educational programs. Moreover, changes should be made in the student evaluation system to encourage medical students to conduct research. The provision of good infrastructure, educational and welfare facilities and easy access to these facilities for teachers and students should also be facilitated.
To provide the information resources needed by the students, the university libraries can be used which act as a bridge between students and information sources. By providing appropriate services, libraries can provide the context so that users can satisfy their information needs by accessing scientific resources at any time and any place. The services of university libraries should be such that they can attract students to the library. They can provide appropriate services such as up-to-date journals, access to specialized databases, and digital library services.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The article is taken from the doctoral dissertation at the University Research Council meeting on 5/12/2018 and approved by the University Ethics Committee on 5/12/2018 under ethics code 17121701941002.

Funding
This article is taken from the PhD dissertation entitled "Explaining the information anorexia of medical students of Hamedan University of Medical Sciences and presenting a model for it" from the Islamic Azad University of Hamedan Branch, which was done with the support of the same university.

Authors' contributions
Collected information, analyzed information, and prepared the article: Farahnaz Naderbeigi; Supervised and guided the article preparation: Alireza isfandiari-Moghaddam.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
 

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