What do Web-Use Skill Differences Imply for Online Health Information Searches?

Abstract

BackgroundOnline health information is of variable and often low scientific quality. In particular, elderly less-educated populations are said to struggle in accessing quality online information (digital divide). Little is known about (1) how their online behavior differs from that of younger, more-educated, and more-frequent Web users, and (2) how the older population may be supported in accessing good-quality online health information.ObjectiveTo specify the digital divide between skilled and less-skilled Web users, we assessed qualitative differences in technical skills, cognitive strategies, and attitudes toward online health information. Based on these findings, we identified educational and technological interventions to help Web users find and access good-quality online health information.MethodsWe asked 22 native German-speaking adults to search for health information online. The skilled cohort consisted of 10 participants who were younger than 30 years of age, had a higher level of education, and were more experienced using the Web than 12 participants in the less-skilled cohort, who were at least 50 years of age. We observed online health information searches to specify differences in technical skills and analyzed concurrent verbal protocols to identify health information seekers’ cognitive strategies and attitudes.ResultsOur main findings relate to (1) attitudes: health information seekers in both cohorts doubted the quality of information retrieved online; among poorly skilled seekers, this was mainly because they doubted their skills to navigate vast amounts of information; once a website was accessed, quality concerns disappeared in both cohorts, (2) technical skills: skilled Web users effectively filtered information according to search intentions and data sources; less-skilled users were easily distracted by unrelated information, and (3) cognitive strategies: skilled Web users searched to inform themselves; less-skilled users searched to confirm their health-related opinions such as “vaccinations are harmful.” Independent of Web-use skills, most participants stopped a search once they had found the first piece of evidence satisfying search intentions, rather than according to quality criteria.ConclusionsFindings related to Web-use skills differences suggest two classes of interventions to facilitate access to good-quality online health information. Challenges related to findings (1) and (2) should be remedied by improving people’s basic Web-use skills. In particular, Web users should be taught how to avoid information overload by generating specific search terms and to avoid low-quality information by requesting results from trusted websites only. Problems related to finding (3) may be remedied by visually labeling search engine results according to quality criteria.

Information overload in healthcare: too much of a good thing?

“…they generally enter a single search term., access only the first few search results, and rarely check who is responsible for a website's content. [8,9] In fact, the main factor for information retrieval by the general public is accessibility, i.e., both the basic availability of information and the comprehensibility of information. [8][9][10][11] Web search engines, however are not neutral access points to information; they act as information filters, particularly in the way they present their search results: ranked by link popularity and delimited by personalization algorithms (i.e.…”

“…[33,34] There are also strategies to make high quality health information more readily available via the resources already in use: promoting the participation of healthcare professionals in editing Wikipedia [10] or paying for sponsored links in popular search engines. [8] Health information literacy: The skills to efficiently search, identify, and evaluate relevant information are important for all actors in the healthcare system. While their situations and information needs differ, patients, practitioners, and systematic reviewers have to be able to judge the level of evidence (reliability) of the information they find.…”

Perceptions on technology for volunteer respite care for bedridden elders in Chile

“…However, a discrepancy exists as to the type of technology used. This discrepancy in the use of technology could be associated with the age of the interviewee, seeing that an inverse relationship exists between age and the user’s operation level of the Internet and other digital skills (Feufel & Stahl, 2012; Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2009). However, other factors do influence access and use of technologies and the Internet.…”

Dr Google

“…The general web user may be prone to becoming overwhelmed with an excessive and non-prioritized amount of data if a serious, effective and systematic screening of Google's search results is not performed. 28 The interactive and dynamic nature of the World Wide Web promotes the popularity of popular scientific websites, containing comment and debate forums, moderated by authors who are not necessarily specialized. When it comes to potentially controversial health-related issues, these forums can easily generate distinct waves of public opinion and promote speculation.…”

“…24,28 Since Google's web search is not specialized in providing medical information, a health-care specific search engine or similar tool could be created. Such a tool could categorize and structure medically verified information, and could become the reference point for this type of information for general Internet users and concerned individuals seeking impartial medical advice on the Internet.…”