 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Kris S. Freeman, MS, Center for Ecogenetics and Environmental Health, Department of Environmental Health, University of Washington, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, suite 100, Seattle, WA 98105-6099, 206-616-8536, kfreeman@u.washington.edu
The millions of readers who seek medical information on the Internet must sift through a bewildering array of Web sites that vary dramatically in quality and credibility. This study examined two textual cues that readers may use to evaluate the credibility of medical information online—a street address and external links—using a 2 (article topic: diabetes, hepatitis A) x 2 (street address: present or absent) x 2 (external links: present or absent) factorial design. In an online experiment, participants (102 female, 48 male) read one of eight Web pages and rated their credibility on 12 measures, and answered demographic questions and two open-ended questions about their perceptions of medical information online. Articles that displayed a street address had significantly higher ratings for "article is credible" and significantly lower ratings for "author is credible" than articles that did not display a street address. There were no quantitative results for the effects of external links, yet qualitative comments indicate that many readers carefully scrutinize links in their credibility evaluations. These results provide evidence that the presence of addresses and links to external sites affects readers’ judgments of the credibility of online information.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Internet, Behavioral Research
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.