Criteria for determining the quality of health information on the Internet: A survey of public health professionals

Introduction: The Internet has become a common resource for public health information. However, internet public health information remains poorly organized and and of variable quality. Our group is developing a natural language processing system to retrieve quality public health documents based on automated filtering according to a set of quality criteria. To determine the extent to which local public health professionals (PHP) use the Internet for public health information, as well as the criteria public health professionals use to assess quality, we conducted an online survey of health department directors and program managers in 6 states of the Pacific Northwest. Method: An anonymous online survey was sent to health department directors the six states in the Pacific Northwest. Survey questions focused on Internet use, the type of information sought, and the criteria public health professionals use to determine the quality of information available on the Internet. Results: 179 PHP responded to the survey. 93% of the respondents were local public health professionals. 97% of the respondents had full access to computers at work. The CDC website, state public health websites, and the Google search site are used most commonly. The most important criteria for selecting a particular website is the sponsoring agency or institution. Major factors cited for determining the quality of Internet information are authority, currency, and accuracy. Conclusion: The Internet has become an important source of public health information for PHPs. Authority, accuracy and currency are important attributes used to determine the quality of information on the Internet.