Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

The Diabetes Educator

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Journal of Health Psychology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Barnes, M. D.
Right arrow Articles by Thomas, E.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Barnes, M. D.
Right arrow Articles by Thomas, E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Measuring the Relevance of Evaluation Criteria among Health Information Seekers on the Internet

Michael D. Barnes

Brigham Young University, USA, michael_barnes{at}byu.edu

Christy Penrod

Utah State Health Department, USA

Brad L. Neiger

Brigham Young University, USA

Ray M. Merrill

Brigham Young University, USA

Rosemary Thackeray

Brigham Young University, USA

Dennis L. Eggett

Brigham Young University, USA

Evan Thomas

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, USA

This study identified the criteria that are valued among Internet users when rating and accessing health information on the World Wide Web. Participants (N = 578) successfully completed a Web-based survey by ranking 12 criteria for evaluating health information. Then, by applying those same evaluation criteria, rated the quality of three preselected health-related websites and indicated their preference for one of the three sites. Six criteria including content, design and aesthetics, currency of information and contact addresses were significant predictors for selecting high-quality health information on the Internet. However, compared to their perceived importance, participants' perceptions about quality health information on the Internet were not consistent when selecting quality websites. This study identified the implications for evaluation criteria among Internet users, health professionals and website developers.

Key Words: eHealth • evaluation criteria • health communication • health professional

Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 8, No. 1, 71-82 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/1359105303008001436
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?