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BackgroundOnline consumer health information addresses health problems, self-care, disease prevention, and health care services and is intended for the general public. Using this information, people can improve their knowledge, participation in health decision-making, and health. However, there are no comprehensive instruments to evaluate the value of health information from a consumer perspective.ObjectiveWe collaborated with information providers to develop and validate the Information Assessment Method for all (IAM4all) that can be used to collect feedback from information consumers (including patients), and to enable a two-way knowledge translation between information providers and consumers.MethodsContent validation steps were followed to develop the IAM4all questionnaire. The first version was based on a theoretical framework from information science, a critical literature review and prior work. Then, 16 laypersons were interviewed on their experience with online health information and specifically their impression of the IAM4all questionnaire. Based on the summaries and interpretations of interviews, questionnaire items were revised, added, and excluded, thus creating the second version of the questionnaire. Subsequently, a panel of 12 information specialists and 8 health researchers participated in an online survey to rate each questionnaire item for relevance, clarity, representativeness, and specificity. The result of this expert panel contributed to the third, current, version of the questionnaire.ResultsThe current version of the IAM4all questionnaire is structured by four levels of outcomes of information seeking/receiving: situational relevance, cognitive impact, information use, and health benefits. Following the interviews and the expert panel survey, 9 questionnaire items were confirmed as relevant, clear, representative, and specific. To improve readability and accessibility for users with a lower level of literacy, 19 items were reworded and all inconsistencies in using a passive or active voice have been solved. One item was removed due to redundancy. The current version of the IAM4all questionnaire contains 28 items.ConclusionsWe developed and content validated the IAM4all in partnership with information providers, information specialists, researchers and representatives of information consumers. This questionnaire can be integrated within electronic knowledge resources to stimulate users’ reflection (eg, their intention to use information). We claim that any organization (eg, publishers, community organizations, or patient associations), can evaluate and improve their online consumer health information from a consumers’ perspective using this method.

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From a holistic perspective, health literacy is a requirement for the well-being of entire populations. It moves beyond the focus on individuals to consider the role of organizations and systems. This perspective offers a context for discussing best practices in health literacy, and implications for research and policy development. This paper offers an overview of the best practices that were presented at the Second Canadian Conference on Literacy and Health. It discusses clear writing in some detail because it was emphasized at the conference. It also considers practices that were addressed less emphatically, such as oral communication between patients and health care professionals, training for health care professionals, non-written means of communication (such as video), and building capacity through action-research. The paper critiques some practices. It also notes the lack of research on the links between health literacy and oral understanding, on the impact of verbal and non-written interventions, and on the effectiveness of these practices on the health outcomes of the population. It briefly discusses policy issues and suggests some future directions.