scholarly journals Evaluating Hospital Websites in Kuwait to Improve Consumer Engagement and Access to Health Information: A Cross-Sectional Analytical Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dari Alhuwail ◽  
Zainab AlMeraj ◽  
Fatima Boujarwah
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Consumer Engagement ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Accessibility Guidelines ◽  
The State Of Kuwait

BACKGROUND Current advances in information and communication technology have made accessing and obtaining health-related information easier than ever before. Today, many hospital websites use a patient-centric approach to promote engagement and encourage learning for better health-related decision making. However, little is known about the current state of hospital websites in the State of Kuwait. OBJECTIVE This study aims to thoroughly evaluate hospital websites in Kuwait and offer recommendations to improve consumer engagement and access to health information. METHODS This study employs a cross-sectional analytical approach to evalu- ate hospital websites in Kuwait in 2017. The websites of hospitals that provide in-patient services were identified through a structured search. Only active websites that were available in either English or Arabic were considered. The evaluation of the websites involved a combination of automated and expert- based evaluation methods and was performed across four dimensions: Accessibility, usability, presence, and content. RESULTS Nine hospitals met the inclusion criteria. Most of the websites fell short in all four dimensions. None of the websites passed the accessibility guidelines. The usability of websites varied between hospitals. Overall, the majority of hospitals in Kuwait have rudimentary online presences and their websites require careful reassessment with respect to design, content, and user experience. The websites focus primarily on promoting services provided by the hospital rather than engaging and communicating with patients or providing evidence-based information CONCLUSIONS Healthcare organization and website developers should follow best-practices to improve their websites taking into consideration the quality, readability, objectivity, coverage and currency of the information as well as the design of their websites. Hospitals should leverage social media to gain outreach and better engagement with consumers. The websites should be offered in additional languages commonly spoken by people living in Kuwait. Efforts should be made to ensure that health information on hospital websites are evidence-based and checked by healthcare professionals.

Access to Health-Related Information in a Selected Community in the Gokwe South District, Zimbabwe

Mousaion ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mthokozisi Masumbika Ncube ◽  
Godfrey Tsvuura
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Local Council ◽  
Related Information ◽  
District Council ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Midlands Province ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Government

The Gokwe South District is among the top districts in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe with several health-related challenges, as indicated by the statistics from the Zimbabwe National Health Profile. The premise of this study was, therefore, to establish mechanisms that could be instituted to ensure access to health-related information for the Gokwe South community members. The study was pragmatic, through an embedded mixed-methods design. Opportunity sampling was used to select 72 community members. Expert sampling was used to select an information officer of the Gokwe Rural District Council and two members of the Zimbabwe Library Association Midlands Branch. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the community members, whereas interviews were used to generate data from the information officer, and the members of the Zimbabwe Library Association Midlands Branch. The study found that the community members faced varied challenges when accessing health-related information, which included digital illiteracy, the lack of health information centres, geographic seclusion of communities, and information format challenges. As a way forward, the study noted the need for the institution of community libraries and health information centres by the government, through the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, in conjunction with the local council. In addition, diverse associations, such as the Zimbabwe Library Association, were recommended to play an active role in offering digital and information literacy programmes to the community members.

The use of online health related information by medical students and their trust in the retrieved information

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Khajouei ◽  
Zahra Karbasi ◽  
Moghaddameh Mirzaee ◽  
Arefeh Ameri ◽  
Leila Ahmadian
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Health Information ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Use Of The Internet

Abstract Background The Internet plays an important role in attaining health related information and its importance is growing worldwide. The majority of Internet users are university students. However, their use of the Internet for health information has not been well studied. The objective of this study was to examine the use of the Internet by medical students to search for health information. Methods This cross-sectional survey was performed on a sample of 400 Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacology students selected from three faculties. The data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire designed based on the review of the published literature and advice of a panel of experts. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 using Chi-square and Logistic regression.Results In this study 261 (65.2%) students used the Internet to search for health information. Most of them (n=175, 67%) somewhat trusted the reliability of information on the Internet. Women used the Internet to search for health information 1.74 times than men (p=0.016) and Medicine students 1.7 times than Pharmacology students (p=0.04). The majority of 20-30 years old students believed that using Internet had no effect on their visits to physicians(p=<0.0001). It reduced the number of visits in all students older than 30. Conclusions The content of online resources needs to be monitored in terms of its credibility for using by students especially those involved in health care domain. Based on our findings most students somewhat trusted the online health information. This is promising for the universities to plan for investment on online education and materials.

scholarly journals Readability of Prostate Cancer Information Online: A Cross-Sectional Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1665-1669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey H. Basch ◽  
Danna Ethan ◽  
Sarah A. MacLean ◽  
Joseph Fera ◽  
Phillip Garcia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prostate Cancer ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Cancer Information ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Internet Browser ◽  
Health Related

Reading and understanding health information, both components of health literacy, can influence patient decisions related to disease management. Older adults, the population of males at greatest risk for prostate cancer, may have compromised capacity to understand and use health information. The purpose of this study was to determine the readability of prostate cancer materials on the Internet using five recommended readability tests. Using a cleared Internet browser, a search was conducted for “prostate cancer.” The URLs of the first 100 websites in English were recorded to create the sample. The readability scores for each website were determined using an online, recommended service. This service generates five commonly recommended readability tests. All five tests revealed that the majority of websites had difficult readability. There were no significant differences identified between websites with .org, .gov, or .edu extension versus those with .com, .net, or other extension. It is apparent that the Internet is used often as a resource for health-related information. This study demonstrates that the large majority of information available on the Internet about prostate cancer will not be readable for many individuals.

Risk Assessment vs. Right to Privacy: The Access to Health Information on the Insurance Candidate through Questionnaires and the Right to Privacy

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-78
Author(s):  
Maria Inês de Oliveira Martins
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Right To Privacy ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Principle Of Proportionality ◽  
The Right

Abstract The need of private insurers for information on the candidate’s health risks is recognized by the law, which places pre-contractual duties of disclosure upon the candidates. When the risks are influenced by health factors, e.g. in the case of life- and health insurances, it implies the provision of health information by the candidates, who thus voluntarily limit their right to privacy. This consent, however, often happens in a context of factual coercion to contract. Next to this, from a legal standpoint, the collection of personal information must respond to the principle of proportionality. Against this background, this article assesses the compatibility of questionnaire techniques that rely on open-ended health related questions with the right to privacy, as protected by Portuguese and international law. It then analyses the extent of pre-contractual duties of disclosure as defined by the Portuguese Insurance Act, which requires the candidate to volunteer all the relevant information independently of being asked for it. In doing so, the article also refers to some other European countries. It concludes that the relevant Portuguese legislation is incompatible both with Portuguese constitutional law and with international law.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM IN MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTHCARE SERVICES

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Rakhi Chowdhury ◽  
Leena Kumari ◽  
Subhamay Panda
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Information System ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Maternal And Child Health ◽  
Health Information System ◽  
Health Care Sector ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related ◽  
And Child Health

Health information system deals with any system that helps in capturing, storing, transmitting, and managing health-related information of an individual or to demonstrate the activities or organizations working within health-care sector. In the developing countries, maternal and child health is gaining concern due to increasing cases of morbidity and mortality. The disparities among the maternal, infant, and child health are a growing concern in India and are governed by various determinants such as socioeconomic status, literacy, quality of health care, discrimination, and biological and genetic factors. Accurate and reliable health information and data are the basis for decision-making across the health-care sector and are crucial for the development and implementation of health system policy by the policy-makers. Strict monitoring and evaluation of the present program design and its implementation is required at the microlevel to effectively utilize the resources for the improvement of maternal and child health. Our present article focuses on evaluating the coverage gap at the different levels for the provision of health-care facilities to maternal, neonatal, and child health, immunization, and treatment of poor children. Big data plays a major role in providing sound and reliable health-related information and also help in managing and recording structured and unstructured data. More concrete plans are required further to reduce the inequalities in health-care interventions for providing better maternal and child health-care services in our nation.

scholarly journals Development of an Instrument to Assess Parents’ Excessive Web-Based Searches for Information Pertaining to Their Children’s Health: The “Children’s Health Internet Research, Parental Inventory” (CHIRPI)

10.2196/16148 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. e16148
Author(s):  
Antonia Barke ◽  
Bettina K Doering
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Children's Health ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Children’S Health ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Main Effects

Background People often search the internet to obtain health-related information not only for themselves but also for family members and, in particular, their children. However, for a minority of parents, such searches may become excessive and distressing. Little is known about excessive web-based searching by parents for information regarding their children’s health. Objective This study aimed to develop and validate an instrument designed to assess parents' web-based health information searching behavior, the Children’s Health Internet Research, Parental Inventory (CHIRPI). Methods A pilot survey was used to establish the instrument (21 items). CHIRPI was validated online in a second sample (372/384, 96.9% mothers; mean age 32.7 years, SD 5.8). Item analyses, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and correlations with parents’ perception of their children’s health-related vulnerability (Child Vulnerability Scale, CVS), parental health anxiety (modified short Health Anxiety Inventory, mSHAI), and parental cyberchondria (Cyberchondria Severity Scale, CSS-15) were calculated. A subset of participants (n=73) provided retest data after 4 weeks. CHIRPI scores (total scores and subscale scores) of parents with a chronically ill child and parents who perceived their child to be vulnerable (CVS+; CVS>10) were compared with 2×2 analyses of variances (ANOVAs) with the factors Child’s Health Status (chronically ill vs healthy) and perceived vulnerability (CVS+ vs CVS−). Results CHIRPI’s internal consistency was standardized alpha=.89. The EFA identified three subscales: Symptom Focus (standardized alpha=.87), Implementing Advice (standardized alpha=.74) and Distress (standardized alpha=.89). The retest reliability of CHIRPI was measured as rtt=0.78. CHIRPI correlated strongly with CSS-15 (r=0.66) and mSHAI (r=0.39). The ANOVAs comparing the CHIRPI total score and the subscale scores for parents having a chronically ill child and parents perceiving their child as vulnerable revealed the main effects for perceiving one’s child as vulnerable but not for having a chronically ill child. No interactions were found. This pattern was observed for the CHIRPI total score (η2=0.053) and each subscale (Symptom Focus η2=0.012; Distress η2=0.113; and Implementing Advice η2=0.018). Conclusions The psychometric properties of CHIRPI are excellent. Correlations with mSHAI and CSS-15 indicate its validity. CHIRPI appears to be differentially sensitive to excessive searches owing to parents perceiving their child’s health to be vulnerable rather than to higher informational needs of parents with chronically ill children. Therefore, it may help to identify parents who search excessively for web-based health information. CHIRPI (and, in particular, the Distress subscale) seems to capture a pattern of factors related to anxious health-related cognitions, emotions, and behaviors of parents, which is also applied to their children.

scholarly journals Evaluating the Quality of Health-Related WeChat Public Accounts: Cross-Sectional Study

10.2196/14826 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. e14826 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuzhi Wang ◽  
Zhuoxin Wang ◽  
Weiwei Sun ◽  
Xiumu Yang ◽  
Zhiwei Bian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Suitability Assessment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Status ◽  
Health Related

Background As representatives of health information communication platforms accessed through mobile phones and mobile terminals, health-related WeChat public accounts (HWPAs) have a large consumer base in the Chinese-speaking world. However, there is still a lack of general understanding of the status quo of HWPAs and the quality of the articles they release. Objective The aims of this study were to assess the conformity of HWPAs to the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode) and to evaluate the suitability of articles disseminated by HWPAs. Methods The survey was conducted from April 23 to May 5, 2019. Based on the monthly (March 1-31, 2019) WeChat Index provided by Qingbo Big Data, the top 100 HWPAs were examined to evaluate their HONcode compliance. The first four articles published by each HWPA on the survey dates were selected as samples to evaluate their suitability. All materials were assessed by three raters. The materials were assessed using the HONcode checklist and the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM) score sheet. Data analysis was performed with SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) and Excel version 2013 (Microsoft Inc, Washington DC, USA). Results A total of 93 HWPAs and 210 of their released articles were included in this study. For six of the eight principles, the 93 HWPAs nearly consistently did not meet the requirements of the HONcode. The HWPAs certified by Tencent Corporation (66/93, 71%) were generally slightly superior to those without such certification (27/93, 29%) in terms of compliance with HONcode principles. The mean SAM score for the 210 articles was 67.72 (SD 10.930), which indicated “adequate” suitability. There was no significant difference between the SAM scores of the articles published by certified and uncertified HWPAs (P=.07), except in the literacy requirements dimension (tdf=97=–2.418, P=.02). Conclusions The HWPAs had low HONcode conformity. Although the suitability of health information released by HWPAs was at a moderate level, there were still problems identified, such as difficulty in tracing information sources, excessive implicit advertisements, and irregular usage of charts. In addition, the low approval requirements of HWPAs were not conducive to improvement of their service quality.

scholarly journals Online Health Information Seeking by Parents for Their Children: Systematic Review and Agenda for Further Research

10.2196/19985 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. e19985
Author(s):  
Christian Kubb ◽  
Heather M Foran
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Online Health Information ◽  
Health Information Seeking ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Online Health Information Seeking ◽  
The Web

Background Parents commonly use the internet to search for information about their child’s health-related symptoms and guide parental health-related decisions. Despite the impact of parental online health seeking on offline health behaviors, this area of research remains understudied. Previous literature has not adequately distinguished searched behaviors when searching for oneself or one`s child. Objective The purpose of this review is to examine prevalences and associated variables of parent-child online health information seeking; investigate parents’ health-related online behavior regarding how they find, use, and evaluate information; and identify barriers and concerns that they experience during the search. Based on this analysis, we develop a conceptual model of potentially important variables of proxy online health information seeking, with a focus on building an agenda for further research. Methods We conducted a comprehensive systematic literature review of the PsycINFO, JMIR, and PubMed electronic databases. Studies between January 1994 and June 2018 were considered. The conceptual model was developed using an inductive mixed methods approach based on the investigated variables in the study sample. Results A total of 33 studies met the inclusion criteria. Findings suggest that parents worldwide are heavy online users of health-related information for their children across highly diverse circumstances. A total of 6 studies found high parental health anxiety, with prevalences ranging from 14% to 52%. Although parents reported wishing for more guidance from their pediatrician on how to find reliable information, they rarely discussed retrieved information from the web. The conceptual model of proxy online health information seeking includes 49 variables. Conclusions This systematic review identifies important gaps regarding the influence of health-related information on parents’ health behavior and outcomes. Follow-up studies are required to offer parents guidance on how to use the web for health purposes in an effective way, as well as solutions to the multifaceted problems during or after online health information seeking for their child. The conceptual model with the number of studies in each model category listed highlights how previous studies have hardly considered relational variables between the parent and child. An agenda for future research is presented.

Prevalence and Correlates of US Adult Public Opinion on Restricting Junk Food Advertising to Children on Social Media: 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ariella R. Korn ◽  
Kelly D. Blake ◽  
Heather D’Angelo ◽  
Jill Reedy ◽  
April Oh
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Normal Weight ◽  
Food Advertising ◽  
Junk Food ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Advertising To Children ◽  
National Trends ◽  
Advertising Restrictions

Abstract Objective: To describe US adults’ levels of support, neutrality, and opposition to restricting junk food advertising to children on social media and explore associations with sociodemographic and health-related characteristics. Design: In 2020-2021, we used cross-sectional data from the National Cancer Institute’s 2020 Health Information National Trends Survey to estimate the prevalence of opinions toward advertising restrictions, and correlates of neutrality and opposition using weighted multivariable logistic regression. Setting: United States. Participants: Adults aged 18+ years. Results: Among the analytic sample (n=2852), 54% of adults were neutral or opposed to junk food advertising restrictions on social media. The odds of being neutral or opposed were higher among Non-Hispanic Black adults (vs non-Hispanic White; OR: 2.03 (95% CI: 1.26, 3.26)); those completing some college (OR: 1.68 (95% CI: 1.20, 2.34)) or high school or less (OR: 2.62 (95% CI: 1.74, 3.96)) (vs those with a college degree); those who were overweight (vs normal weight; OR: 1.42 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.93)); and those reporting a moderate (OR: 1.45 (95% CI: 1.13, 1.88)) or conservative (OR: 1.71 (95% CI: 1.24, 2.35)) political viewpoint (vs liberal). Having strong (vs weaker) weight and diet-related cancer beliefs was associated with 53% lower odds of being neutral or opposed to advertising restrictions (OR: 0.47 (95% CI: 0.36, 0.61)). Conclusions: This study identified subgroups of US adults for whom targeted communication strategies may increase support for policies to improve children’s food environment.

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