Information Commitments and Internet Attitudes of Nutritional Science Students and In-Service Dietitians in Taiwan

Abstract

This study aimed to explore nutritional science students' and in-service dietitians' information commitments and Internet attitudes toward online nutritional information. The subjects were 340 nutritional science students and in-service dietitians in Taiwan. Two instruments, Information Commitments Survey (ICS) and Internet Attitude Scale (IAS), were used in this study. Results of the study showed that, although students and dietitians with more Internet experience perceived more positively toward Internet's usefulness, they tended to utilize less advanced information commitment standards and less advanced online information searching strategy. No gender difference was found in this study. Significant relations were found between information commitments and attitudes toward Internet. Finally, the in-service dietitians demonstrated more "Technical' standard and 'Elaboration' searching strategy than did the nutritional science students.