The Global Burden of Disease reports 93.8 million global stroke cases, ranking third in mortality and fourth in disability-adjusted life years worldwide. With the reform of the healthcare system, to maximize the use of healthcare resources, improve the efficiency of healthcare services, and reduce the burden of disease, most stroke patients are often discharged from hospitals to their homes after passing through the acute phase. The hospital-to-home transition, the period experienced by patients as they transition from hospital to home, is the most critical period for patients to develop their rehabilitation skills, readjust to a changed life, and learn to manage their family's health status. Patients remain extremely vulnerable and unstable after discharge from the hospital, still have a high number of issues that require counseling, and have a persistently high need for health information regarding their disease prognosis, treatment decisions, symptom assessment, and medication management. The lack of information about stroke disease in stroke patients often leads to their inability to cope with the dysfunctions caused by the disease in a timely and correct manner, resulting in adverse outcomes. Health Information Behavior is a coping strategy based on the generation of health problems and needs, and it is a collection of all behaviors that build on the relationship between health information needs and health decisions. When patients face many problems after discharge from the hospital, access to health information is key, and their query, screening, selection, and utilization of health information can largely influence their perception of illness, which in turn influences their decision-making and management of illness, and also reduces the negative emotions associated with uncertainty about illness. Although there has been a gradual increase in recent research on the health information behavior of various populations, different populations have different health information needs arising from different scenarios. In particular, the transition period is a weak point for stroke patients, who face role changes and scenario shifts, and whose HIB differs from the rest of the population. The present study was guided by descriptive qualitative research methods and used behavioral event interviews to initially explore the experiences of stroke patients during the transition period in performing health information behaviors and to understand possible facilitators and barriers to the behavior. To provide some reference for the later development of measurement tools and the provision of accurate information support and health information behavior interventions.

Stroke, Health Information Behavior, Transition, Qualitative Study