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| The number of health websites is growing rapidly online, says Traci Hong, community health researcher for Tulane University. |
With increasing numbers of people going online for health information, health websites should pay attention to credibility, says Tulane University community health researcher Traci Hong. Hong's research on website credibility is published in the June issue of the Journal of Health Communication.
Hong recruited 84 adults to participate in an experiment on Web-seeking behavior for health information. They were given two different online search task instructions on locating information about tobacco cessation strategies. As they searched online, a non-intrusive software tracked their online behavior. Upon completion of the search task, participants were asked to comment on the websites they selected as information resources.
"For web designers, the question is how do you make a site that people will bookmark and come back to or recommend to their friends and family. Your site has about 30 seconds to make the first impression with a Web user," says Hong, who argues that perceived credibility is a deciding factor. "Very few studies have examined the characteristics of credible online health information as it relates to repeat visits to a website."
She chose the topic of tobacco cessation because there are many sites online with poor information, she explains.
Hong's results showed that the sites that users perceived to have trustworthy expert sources and in-depth information were seen as the most credible. These credibility dimensions predict repeat visits to the website. The perception that the website has the best interest of the user in mind was also an important element of credibility.
Hong also published research in the January issue of the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology showing that website credibility is strongly related to the site domain, up-to-date information, referenced information sources and the presence of testimonials. Site domains such as .gov, .edu and .org were seen as highly credible for general information searches.
The two publications are part of a series of studies of online health information-seeking behavior, Hong says.
"My interest came about because the number of health websites online has been growing rapidly and, at the same time, private industry and the government are increasingly interested in how people use those sites," says Hong, who admits that credibility and the factors that create it are difficult to define, which was why she looked at specific features in addition to perceptions of expertise, good will, trustworthiness and depth.
Some of the results surprised her. She found that website design elements such as layout, graphics and images didn't affect credibility for people who have a specific search goal in mind. The presence of ads on a website or the presence of a privacy policy or third-party endorsement of the site also had no impact on credibility.
Hong cautions that results of research with people who are seeking specific information online might not apply to people who are just surfing and might be more likely to respond to graphic elements.
In the future, Hong hopes to extend this research to cancer websites and to online support groups, where many cancer patients and their loved ones go to find information. She has a particular interest in the way in which credibility is perceived for sites such as chat rooms and Wikipedia, where users maintain and generate all the content.
