This study identified criteria valued as important among Internet users when rating and accessing health information on the World Wide Web. Twelve hundred and ninety employees working for Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratories were contacted via email and invited to participate in a Web-based survey. Five hundred and seventy-eight participants successfully completed the survey by ranking the valued importance of twelve criteria (USDHHS and CDC created) for evaluating health information, rating the quality of three preselected health-related Web sites, and indicating their preference for one of the three sites. In the initial analysis of ranking, participants ranked attribution, documentation, and authority of source as the most important criteria. From the initial ranking, design and aesthetics were the least important. Other less important criteria included: contact addresses, intended audience, and content. The final portion of analysis (binary logistic regression) considered the rating of three web sites using the twelve quality criteria. Six criteria including content, design and aesthetics, currency of information, intended audience, contact addresses, and user support were found to be significant predictors for selecting high-quality health information on the Internet. The Internet users' habits in selecting high-quality health information did not reflect the evaluation criteria they valued during the initial ranking of quality criteria. This study identified the implications and utilization of evaluation criteria for Internet users, health education professionals, and Web-site developers.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant will be able to: 1. Recognize USDHHS's twelve recently developed criteria for evaluating health information on the Internet. 2. Prioritize the criteria most influential in selecting high-quality health web sites among health information seekers. 3. Identify the implications and utilization of evaluation criteria for Internet users 4. Identify the implications of evaluation criteria among health education professionals and web-site developers.
Keywords: Internet, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
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