A comparison of websites from Spanish, American and British hospitals.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate and compare the user-orientation of Spanish, American and British hospital websites.


METHODS
A descriptive study of 32 hospital portals (12 Spanish, 10 American and 10 British) was carried out in which the following were analyzed: website readability according to the Flesch Index, websites accessibility using the Web Accessibility Test, and the quality of information provided using the "e-Information Scale of Health Care Centers".


RESULTS
Fifty percent of the user-oriented information quality attributes are met. Readability indices tend to be below 60 (standard readability), and only 10 of the 32 websites meet the accessibility criteria.


CONCLUSIONS
Most portals exhibit accessibility problems that favor computer illiteracy. There is a wide variability in terms of website readability and in terms of user-oriented content.
Llinás
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G
Departamento de Psicología de la Salud, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche (Alicante), Spain.
Rodríguez-Iñesta
D
D
Mira
J J
JJ
Lorenzo
S
S
Aibar
C
C
D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D020407:Internet; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013030:Spain; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States; D014584:User-Computer Interface