Health Information-Seeking Behaviors Among Patients with Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases: A Qualitative Study Guided by the S-O-R Theory.

OBJECTIVE: Autoimmune rheumatic diseases (ARDs) require long-term self-management, making health information-seeking behavior (HISB) essential. Prior studies have largely relied on surveys that identified isolated correlates of HISB without clarifying the underlying mechanisms. This exploratory study used the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework to qualitatively investigate HISB among patients with ARDs, providing theory-informed process-oriented insights into information-seeking behavior in this population. METHODS: We conducted a descriptive qualitative interview study. Seventeen patients with ARDs were recruited using purposive sampling from a tertiary hospital in Wuhan, China. Data were collected through face-to-face, semi-structured, in-depth interviews between September and November 2025 and analyzed using directed content analysis guided by the S-O-R theory. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged: (1) Stimuli included disease-related events, digital platform information, and social support; (2) Organism comprised personal characteristics, disease cognition and information literacy, and emotional responses; and (3) Response yielded active seeking, passive acceptance, selective acceptance, and distress-driven avoidance. Beyond the conventional linear S-O-R pathway, participants described recurrent disease-related stimuli that appeared to repeatedly reactivate information-seeking processes across the illness trajectory. CONCLUSION: This study provides qualitative insights into HISB mechanisms among patients with ARDs. Findings suggest that HISB may involve recurrent stimulus-response patterns, which require validation through longitudinal research.