The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #58293

Susan J Robinson, BA, MS, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1500 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333, Abdul R. Shaikh, MHSc, Dept. of Health Behavior & Health Education, University of Michigan School of Public Health, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, 734 647-9574, arshaikh@umich.edu, and Bradford W. Hesse, PhD, Health Studies Group, Westat, 1650 Research Blvd, Rockville, MD 20850.

Recent data suggest that a significant proportion of Americans are beginning to rely on the World Wide Web for information about health and health care (Horrigan & Raine, 2002). The implications for public health are tremendous, as individual health behaviors and decisions become influenced by the accuracy and accessibility of information online. In response to this trend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just completed an extensive, multi-year formative evaluation of its public Web site. The research team combined methods from the fields of health communication, social psychology, and human computer interaction to understand (a) who the users of the CDC Web site were, (b) what the information was that visitors were seeking, and (c) what the information needs were of specific audience segments. Methods included: expert reviews of the site’s content and structure; internal stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and surveys; analysis of public inquiry emails, Web logs, and on-line customer satisfaction surveys; site mapping; and in-depth interviews with selected groups of users. The overall study findings enabled CDC staff to refine their understanding of CDC’s diverse on-line visitors, their information needs, and usage patterns. This has been valuable in creating user scenarios for design and testing during site redesign. Health communicators, health educators, and other public health professionals tasked with planning and maintaining public health Web sites can use the study framework, the methodologies, and lessons learned from the CDC study to optimize their own Web site re-development processes and research into user information needs.

Learning Objectives:

• A) List methods of evaluation and analysis from health communication, social marketing, and human-computer interaction that are relevant to the strategic planning and evaluation of public health Web sites.
• B) Describe the advantages and disadvantages of the various Web evaluation methods, and compare to how a multi-methodology evaluation approach can alleviate these disadvantages.
• C) Discuss how audience segmentation techniques based on health communication and social marketing can be used to better understand the health information needs of diverse user audiences.

Keywords: Health Communications, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Westat - Health Communications team was the evaluation contractor for the CDC Web site evaluation project.
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.