Trust and Engagement in Online Health

Where people look for online health information

“…Compared to US government websites, commercial websites may be more visually sophisticated, with sleekly designed, multimedia‐rich features allowing more fluid navigation and resulting in an overall positive user experience . Research suggests that some online health information seekers consider websites that are well designed or that provide personalised content to be of high quality or credibility, regardless of the content . Therefore, we hypothesise that people who use commercial websites will report online search experiences that include low levels of effort, frustration, confusion and concern.…”

Credibility Strategies of Popular Health Websites: A Rhetorical Analysis of Parkinson’s Information Pages

“…Many patients go online to find medical information and support, accessing a broad array of website types, ranging from sources that have been traditionally considered credible, such as governmental or academic sites, to those that build credibility in newer ways, such as patient blogs and social networking sites. Research has shown that many e-health users trust personal, social, and experiential aspects of websites, such as patient narrative and discussion forums (Hether, Murphy, & Valente, 2014;Sillence & Briggs, 2015). These patient experience features can be empowering and reassuring for patients.…”

A Novel Visual Recognition-basedAuthentication Model Using a Hybrid TrustTheme to Verify Provider Profilesfor Enhancing Information Assurancein Online Healthcare

“…Research in the area of OHI trusts suggest mistrust of websites is based on design factors, including the use of images [3] while trust of websites is based on content factors such as source credibility and personalization [10,24]. For example, [21] argues that consumers tend to trust sites with visual appeal and mistrust those with poor visual design. Thus, images as part of the design or visual appeal can play a guiding role in user trust of OHI.…”

“…These studies suggest that images increase trust by creating a sense of familiarity or endorsement. Consumers appear to be influenced by the branding of the site or by the presence of familiar images or trusted logos [10,21,24]. For example, [2] found that online design factors such as visual appeal, first impression, images and video messages on the web attracted elderly adults seeking OHI, thereby creating a personal connection between the user and the content.…”

“…For example, [2] found that online design factors such as visual appeal, first impression, images and video messages on the web attracted elderly adults seeking OHI, thereby creating a personal connection between the user and the content. Existing literature [10,19,21,22,24,36] argue that trust in OHI can be influenced by trust inducing attributes like website endorsements, scientific imagery and prominent features, such as photographs. They suggest that the quality of information available on a website plays a role along with the perceived profile plus expertise of the providers (or the physicians).…”