Centre for Policy on Ageing



How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the world wide web? — qualitative study using focus groups, usability tests and in-depth interviews
Author(s)	Gunther Eysenbach, Christian Köhler
Journal title	British Medical Journal, vol 324, no 7337, 9 March 2002
Pages	pp 573-577
Keywords	Health [elderly] ; Information services ; Information technology ; Accessibility ; Quality ; Qualitative Studies ; Germany.
Annotation	Little is known about how consumers retrieve and assess the quality of health information on the Internet. The 21 users participating in three focus group sessions for this German study said that they rated a website's credibility by its source, a professional-looking design, a scientific or technical touch, and ease of use. However, in the observational study, no participants checked any "about us" sections of websites, disclaimers or disclosure statements. In post-search interviews, it emerged that very few participants had noticed and remembered from which websites they had retrieved information or who stood behind the sites. Further observational studies are needed to design and evaluate educational and technological innovations for guiding consumers to high quality health information on the web. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-020322202 A
Classmark	CC: UV: UVB: 5CA: 59: 3DP: 767 *
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.