The intercorrelations of the students’ perceptions of reliability of health information sources as well as the intercorrelations of the use of health information sources are shown in Table 3. In the correlation coefficients matrix, the lower left side of the main diagonal represents the correlation coefficients between the perceptions of reliable health information source, and the upper right side of the main diagonal represents the correlation coefficients between health information source usage. The evaluation based on the correlation between the students’ perceptions of reliable health information sources showed that the correlation coefficient between the students’ perception of the pharmacist as reliable health information source and the perception of the nurse as a reliable health information source was the highest (r =0.82; p <0.001). In order of the values, the correlation coefficient between pharmacists and other healthcare professionals (r =0.75; p <0.001) and the correlation coefficient between doctors and nurses (r =0.72;p <0.001) were close. Correlations between reliability perceptions of health workforce information sources (doctor, nurse, pharmacist and other health workers) were generally higher (0.51–0.82); all of these were statistically significant (p <0.001). In addition, in terms of reliability perception, the correlation between television and radio, which is denoted as “traditional” media, was moderate and statistically significant (r =0.64;p <0.001). An evaluation made based on the correlations between the students’ use of health information sources showed that the correlation coefficient between the use of pharmacists and nurses was the highest (r =0.80; p <0.001). This is followed by the correlation between doctors and nurses (r =0.74;p <0.001). Intercorrelations between the use of the health workforce as information sources (doctor, nurse, pharmacist, other health workers) was generally higher (0.53–0.80); all these values were statistically significant (p <0.001).
Table 3. Intercorrelation coefficients of health information source reliability perceptions and uses