Credibility of Health Information and Digital Media: New Perspectives and Implications for Youth

Part of the Volume on Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility. This chapter considers the role of Web technologies on the availability and consumption of health information. It argues that young people are largely unfamiliar with trusted health sources online, making credibility particularly germane when considering this type of information. The author suggests that networked digital media allow for humans and technologies act as "apomediaries" that can be used to steer consumers to high quality health information, thereby empowering health information seekers of all ages

The Impact Of Social Influence, Information Quality And Online Forum Features On The Credibility Of Doctors And Hospitals For Medical Tourism Services

Medical tourism, especially cosmetic surgery to South Korea, is increasingly popular amongst Thai youths. Like many other youths around the world, they can obtain the relevant information from a variety of sources, including web discussion forums. These are the most frequently used information sources that people use to explore the feasibility of having cosmetic surgery overseas. However, it is not empirically clear how much influence these forums have on youth, or what impact social influence, the quality of information and the forum’s features (e.g., doctor information, before/after surgery pictures, clinic/hospital information, surgery information and chat rooms) have on the credibility of doctors and hospitals. This study conducted a number of field experiments and collected data from 233 discussion threads on top 3 online discussion forums that were ranked by 207 business school students. The results show that the reliability of web information is critical in enhancing the credibility of both doctors and hospitals. In addition, the credibility of doctors depends on the forum that is used to find information about surgery, as well as social influence. The credibility of hospitals, on the other hand, is not influenced by the social influence of a consumer’s peers. Instead, their credibility is increased by the forum’s use of before/after surgery pictures, clinical information and information about doctors. Future research may investigate further how different forum features and the web media can have an impact on the credibility of doctors and hospitals

Online Information on Dysmenorrhea: An Evaluation of Readability, Credibility, Quality, and Usability

Aims and objectives To evaluate online information on dysmenorrhoea, including readability, credibility, quality and usability. Background Menstrual pain impacts 45%–95% of women of reproductive age globally and is the leading cause of school and work absences among women. Women often seek online information on dysmenorrhoea; however, little is known about the information quality. Design This was a descriptive study to evaluate online information on dysmenorrhoea. Methods We imitated search strategies of the general public. Specifically, we employed the three most popular search engines worldwide—Google, Yahoo and Bing—and used lay search terms, “period pain” and “menstrual cramps.” We screened 60 web pages. Following removal of duplicates and irrelevant web pages, 25 met the eligibility criteria. Two team members independently evaluated the included web pages using standardised tools. Readability was evaluated with the Flesch–Kincaid Reading Ease and Flesch–Kincaid Grade formulas; credibility, quality and usability were evaluated with established tools. We followed the STROBE checklist for reporting this study. Results For readability, the mean Flesch–Kincaid level was 10th grade. For credibility, 8% of web pages referenced scientific literature and 28% stated the author's name and qualifications. For quality, no web page employed user‐driven content production; 8% of web pages referenced evidence‐based guidelines, 32% of web pages had accurate content, and 4% of web pages recommended shared decision‐making. Most web pages were interactive and included nontextual information. Some nontextual information was inaccurate. Conclusion Online information on dysmenorrhoea has generally low readability, mixed credibility and variable quality. Relevance to clinical practice Strategies to improve health information on dysmenorrhoea include avoiding complex terms, incorporating visual aids, presenting evidence‐based information and developing a decision aid to support shared decision‐making. Healthcare providers should be aware of the problematic health information that individuals are exposed to and provide education about how to navigate online health information

Personality and Credibility Evaluation: Online Health Information from the Viewpoint of Expert Users

Regarding the high importance of credibility evaluation of health information online in every day and career life, the current research aimed to explore how expert users including students and faculty members evaluate health information on the web especially with regard to their personality trait of conscientiousness. By considering the extensive body of literature and research methodologies, a random sample including 148 students and faculty members located at the two faculties of Medicine Sciences and Nursing and Midwife at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences was the population of the study. Two validated questionnaires related to credibility and conscientiousness was distributed among the participants. Gathered data were then analyzed by SPSS software. Data analysis showed that there existed some problems in evaluating the credibility of online health information and quick retrieval. About half of the participants evaluate web health information as credible often and very often. Most important quality assessment criteria were objectivity, currency, and authority. There was a significant correlation between conscientiousness and credibility assessment of the students and faculty members. There appears a change in trust to information found accord with the change in conscientiousness levels. There was no significant correlation between conscientiousness and trust to information among ill people. Quality and credibility were identified as most important problems in assessing health information on the web. There is a significant and meaningful correlation between conscientiousness and trust or mistrust to health information available via the Web

Personality and Credibility Evaluation: Online Health Information from the Viewpoint of Expert Users

Regarding the high importance of credibility evaluation of health information online in every day and career life, the current research aimed to explore how expert users including students and faculty members evaluate health information on the web especially with regard to their personality trait of conscientiousness. By considering the extensive body of literature and research methodologies, a random sample including 148 students and faculty members located at the two faculties of Medicine Sciences and Nursing and Midwife at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences was the population of the study. Two validated questionnaires related to credibility and conscientiousness was distributed among the participants. Gathered data were then analyzed by SPSS software. Data analysis showed that there existed some problems in evaluating the credibility of online health information and quick retrieval. About half of the participants evaluate web health information as credible often and very often. Most important quality assessment criteria were objectivity, currency, and authority. There was a significant correlation between conscientiousness and credibility assessment of the students and faculty members. There appears a change in trust to information found accord with the change in conscientiousness levels. There was no significant correlation between conscientiousness and trust to information among ill people. Quality and credibility were identified as most important problems in assessing health information on the web. There is a significant and meaningful correlation between conscientiousness and trust or mistrust to health information available via the Web

Comparison of Quality of Internet Pages on Human Papillomavirus Immunization in Italian and in English

Purpose: Information available on the Internet about immunizations may influence parents' perception about human papillomavirus (HPV) immunization and their attitude toward vaccinating their daughters. We hypothesized that the quality of information on HPV available on the Internet may vary with language and with the level of knowledge of parents. To this end we compared the quality of a sample of Web pages in Italian with a sample of Web pages in English. Methods: Five reviewers assessed the quality of Web pages retrieved with popular search engines using criteria adapted from the Good Information Practice Essential Criteria for Vaccine Safety Web Sites recommended by the World Health Organization. Quality of Web pages was assessed in the domains of accessibility, credibility, content, and design. Scores in these domains were compared through nonparametric statistical tests. Results: We retrieved and reviewed 74 Web sites in Italian and 117 in English. Most retrieved Web pages (33.5%) were from private agencies. Median scores were higher in Web pages in English compared with those in Italian in the domain of accessibility (p < .01), credibility (p < .01), and content (p < .01). The highest credibility and content scores were those of Web pages from governmental agencies or universities. Accessibility scores were positively associated with content scores (p < .01) and with credibility scores (p < .01). A total of 16.2% of Web pages in Italian opposed HPV immunization compared with 6.0% of those in English (p < .05). Conclusions: Quality of information and number of Web pages opposing HPV immunization may vary with the Web site language. High-quality Web pages on HPV, especially from public health agencies and universities, should be easily accessible and retrievable with common Web search engines. (C) 2010 Society for Adolescent Medicine. All rights reserved

Developing a theoretical framework for web credibility assessment—A case of social Q&A sites: preliminary findings

As part of a larger study, this poster reports on preliminary findings of efforts to develop a theoretical framework for assessing the credibility of information on social question-and-answer (Q&A) sites. A literature analysis was conducted to identify relevant criteria for assessing web credibility on social Q&A sites, which were then mapped to an existing framework of web credibility assessment [1]. Specifically, 21 criteria identified by the literature analysis were categorized into one of six types of web credibility assessments—operator (author) trustworthiness, operator (author) expertise, con-tent trustworthiness, content expertise, design trustworthiness, and design expertise—to develop an information platform type-specific framework of in-formation credibility. Results show that existing criteria used in the literature have focused primarily on content-related attributes (e.g., evidence-based, structural completeness, and semantic clarity and comprehensive-ness), but less on operator (author)-related attributes (e.g., credentials) or de-sign features (e.g., interactive design, appropriateness of design, ease of use). Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed

Oyster Demand Adjustments to Counter-Information and Source Treatments in Response to Vibrio vulnificus

A web-based contingent behavior analysis is developed to quantity the effect of both negative and positive information treatments and post harvest processes (PHP) on demand for oysters. Results from a panel model indicate that consumers of raw and cooked oysters behave differently after news of an oyster-related human mortality. While cooked oyster consumers take precautionary measures against risk, raw oyster consumers exhibit optimistic bias and increase their consumption level. Further, by varying the source of a counter-information treatment, we find that source credibility impacts behavior. Oyster consumers, and in particular, raw oyster consumers, are most responsive to information provided by a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization. Finally, post harvest processing of oysters has no impact on demand. Key Words: Oyster demand; consumer behavior; non-market valuation; Vibrio vulnificus; information treatments; source credibility; optimistic bias

Web Literacy for Evaluating Credibility of Web Information: Issues and Considerations

Because of a variety of procedures related to design and presentation of web content and structure, there would be a pressing need to consider issues of quality of web information in upcoming years. It is argued, in the current paper, that evaluation issues related to credibility and quality assessments are of high importance in web environment in comparison with traditional information environments. Some evaluation skills like authority, coverage, currency, objectivity, accuracy, critical thinking and information literacy all of which could be categorized as Web Literacy would be fruitful in doing so. There exists, however, lack of evaluation skills among users caused by their cognitive styles, prior knowledge, information skills and of web resources characteristics as well. Some other solutions like dialectical reading, information ethics and also institutional policymaking will also be taken into account at the end of the paper