title: The use of websites for disseminating health information in developing countries: an experience from Sri Lanka.
abstract: This study was designed to investigate the use of websites as a health education medium in Sri Lanka. Approximately 87.2% of the websites contained less than 100 webpages. The quality score was higher in the websites owned by local nonbusiness organisations compared to the websites owned by business organisations. Only 8.1% of the websites provided health education content for the general public as their main content. The total number of websites has not increased compared to the increase in internet usage in Sri Lanka during the last few years. The internet is an underutilised health education tool despite the growth of internet usage in Sri Lanka.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna, P.O. Box 70, Galle, Sri Lanka. mahinda1@gmail.com
authors.forename: Mahinda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kommalage
authors.forename: Anoj
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thabrew
mesh_terms: D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003906:Developing Countries; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013188:Sri Lanka