Poster can be found in location 47.

Young adults experiencing unfamiliar symptoms commonly seek health information online. This study’s aim was to explore how health information websites express and communicate health information and guide young adult readers in regard to health, illness, and care. Symptoms commonly searched for by young adults were used as search terms. The resulting data comprised material from 24 web pages and was analyzed using content analysis. The foremost purpose of online health information is to try to narrow down the user’s symptoms and then advise the user on what actions to take. This is done by first forming a foundation of knowledge through descriptions and explanations, then specifying the symptom’s time, duration, and location, and finally giving advice on whether to self-manage symptoms or seek additional information about them. However, the uncertainty of the diagnosis may rule out self-care. For those who are young and inexperienced with health care, forming a decisive conclusion about diffuse symptoms on the sole basis of online health information is demonstrated to be challenging. The necessity of health-care knowledge, critical thinking, and interpretation skills is highlighted. We demonstrate that, in the future, health advice given online should be required to conform with health-care access.