Perception of quality and trustworthiness of Internet resources by personal health information seekers.
OBJECTIVE
This paper focuses on one dimension of personal health information seeking: perception of quality and trustworthiness of information sources.


METHODS
Intensive interviews were conducted using a conversational, unstructured, exploratory interview style.


METHODS
Interviews were conducted at 3 publicly accessible library sites in Arizona, Hawaii and Nevada.


METHODS
Thirty-eight non-experts were interviewed.


RESULTS
Three separate and distinct methods used to identify credible health information resources were identified. Consumers may have strong opinions about what they mistrust; use fairly rigorous evaluation protocols; or filter information based on intuition or common sense, eye appeal or an authoritative sounding sponsor or title.


CONCLUSIONS
Many people use a mix of rational and/or intuitive criteria to assess the health information they use.
Stavri
P Zoë
PZ
Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland OR, USA.
Freeman
Donna J
DJ
Burroughs
Catherine M
CM
D003258:Consumer Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services / Q000592:standards*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet / Q000592:standards*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D049293:MedlinePlus / Q000592:standards; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D014481:United States