health information

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Assess Health Information Online

Online Health Information

Three Factors to Evaluate the Quality of Medical Websites
* Medical Content (Adherence, Completeness, References, Updating)
* Accountability of the Authors (Indication of the author’s name, author’s c.v. or position, presence of commercial sponsor, certification, nature of the organization )
* Usability of the Web Site (Contacts, Aesthetics , Ease of use, Links )

Health Inside has a post on How to Assess Health Information Online. Very practical and user friendly with a lot of links for further suggestions and reading, I especially like: Sites that offer ideas on assessing the quality of health information web sites. Their questions are based on the three important characteristics on the top of this post.

The web is often used to find medical information. An increasing number of individuals, companies and other stakeholders have their own websites. The content of these websites is largely unregulated and the enquirer has no way of telling whether the information is reliable. This makes it impossible to make an informed decision. The information found can be unreliable, unbalanced, wrong and misleading.

There are several proposals in the literature for assessing the quality of web based information and assure their quality for non-professional users. In a recent publication a health related Web site evaluation form was tested in an attempt to quantify the quality websites relating to MMR vaccine that a typical searcher might locate. This form helped a lot. It contained several questions about the three characteristics mentioned at the top of this post. This was confirmed in a more recent publication: A quality evaluation methodology of health web-pages. This list isn’t very user friendly, it lacks instructions and there are 49 criteria.

 

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More Than 50% of the European Population use Internet for eHealth

ehealth

More than 52.2% of the European population use the Internet for health related purposes. In 2005 this percentage was 43.2%

Significant growth in the use of Internet for health purposes was found in all the seven countries participating in the survey, with an average growth of 9.9% (8.5 – 11.3). Highest growth was noted in Germany (12.2%), Poland (11.8%), and Latvia (11.3%), whereas the lowest growth was noted in Portugal (9.1%), Greece (8.9%), and Norway (6.6%).

  • In the younger age group aged 15 – 25 years, 83.5% of the women used the Internet for health purposes in 2007. The corresponding proportion for men was 72.4%. At the older age group (66 – 80 years), we saw the opposite effect, where 22.6% of men and 9.9% of women used the Internet for health purposes.
  • Overall with increasing age the use of Internet for Health information decreases
  • There is considerable variation in the importance placed on the Internet as a source of health information within the seven European countries studied. In Denmark currently, the Internet is already considered the second most important source, preceded only by “health professionals”. At the other end of the scale, in Greece, the Internet is considered the least important source of information about health and health-related problems.
  • There is an increase in Internet use for health information. To a great extent this increase in use can be explained by improved Internet access.
  • Rather than using the Internet to search for and read health information, people are increasingly taking part in online communication with peers, unknown professionals, and their family doctors. In addition, the Internet is being used by more people for ordering medical health products.

How was this study done?
The survey data were collected through computer-assisted telephone interviews. A representative sample (N = 14,956) from seven European countries has been used: Denmark, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Norway, Poland, and Portugal. The European eHealth Consumer Trends Survey was first conducted in October-November 2005 and repeated in April-May 2007. In addition to providing background information, respondents were asked to rate the importance of various sources of health information. They were also queried as to the frequency of different online activities related to health and illness and the effects of such use on their disposition.

Limitations

  • Short follow-up period of 18 months.
  • No information on education of the respondents.
  • No information on income from the respondents.

The use of Internet for health information is growing. In the future elderly will also participate. Interactivity will play an important role in ehealth information development.

What do you think?

ResearchBlogging.org
Per Egil Kummervold, Catherine E Chronaki, Berthold Lausen, Hans-Ulrich Prokosch, Janne Rasmussen, Silvina Santana, Andrzej Staniszewski, Silje Camilla Wangberg (2008). eHealth Trends in Europe 2005-2007: A Population-Based Survey Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10 (4) DOI: 10.2196/jmir.1023

 

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Four Types of Commonly Sought Health Information

health information seeking

Internet has an important place in our lives. People search the Internet for important information, especially health or medical information. They sometimes use this information for important decisions such as which physician to consult or which treatment options to choose from. Internet users do perceive the Internet as an alternative resource of information for health problems since there are many sites like https://biogreen.life/ that provide them the answers they are looking for. The majority still prefer to use doctors, pharmacists, and nurses as their main sources of information. So it is not used as self-doctoring as is often feared.

There are four types of commonly sought health informations:

  • Health improvement
  • Medical treatment. Information on medical treatments helps people to have more control over their health decisions, feeling more empowered.
  • Family health
  • Health issues that are difficult to talk about. The Internet reduces embarrassment and provides anonymity especially for sensitive and private health information

This study also showed

….. that those who often go to the Internet for health information and have high expectations of health information websites tend to be those who are more likely to perceive that the Internet plays an important role in life decisions.

Health information seekers especially used health information websites to weigh the pros and cons of a treatment. For someone seeking health information and a high Internet embeddedness the following characteristics of health information websites are important:

  • Nontechnical language
  • Searchable
  • Free
  • With feedback
  • With interactive support

information seeking experiences may lead to the perception of being empowered and make people feel more reliant on the Internet

So it works both ways. I don’t know about you but the Internet is very much “embedded” in my life. It fits in with my daily routine. Check e-mail twice a day, read my RSS feeds at least once a day, and much more. I use it a lot for most of my work, it enhances my productivity and quality of life. And with blogging I got to know interesting new people from all over the world.

What about you, is the Internet embedded in your life and how concerning fit, status and connectedness?

What was the research?

Data for this study were collected from a telephone survey with a probability sample of 1,076 respondents aged 18 or above, randomly chosen from the latest telephone directory in Hong Kong. The survey instrument was pilot tested before the actual fieldwork on 42 university students, which took place August 22–26, 2006. All eligible respondents included for analyses were PC users and had access to the Internet at home. Of the 569 Internet users, 51.7% were male and the mean age category was between 39 and 40 years of age. The response rate was 55%.

ResearchBlogging.org
Leung, Louis (2008). Internet Embeddedness: Links with Online Health
Information Seeking, Expectancy Value/Quality of Health
Information Websites, and Internet Usage Patterns CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11 (5), 1-5 DOI: 18771393