Health Information on the Web for Canadian Teens: A Survey of Web Portals Designed for Teen Health Information Seekers

Author(s):  
Leanne Bowler

This paper reports on an environmental scan of the Web, the purpose of which was to identify and describe portals to general health information, in English and French, designed specifically for teens.Cet article présente une analyse de l'environnement du Web dont le but est d'identifier et de décrire les portails regroupant de l'information générale sur la santé, en anglais et en français, conçus précisément pour les adolescents. 

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-86
Author(s):  
Christine Rzepka

One of the top reasons given for use of the internet is the ability to search for health information. However, much of the planning for web-based health information often fails to consider accessibility issues. If health care organizations and community agencies’ web sites have the latest, most wellresearched information on the health topics of the day, it is useless to those who cannot access it because of invisible technological barriers. Many flashy, high-tech sites were designed only to appeal to the needs of the mainstream population, with no consideration given to how people with disabilities must adapt their use of the web in order to access information. This article addresses issues of access specific to web site development, and will explore barriers to accessibility frequently experienced by web users with disabilities, requirements for ADA compliance, and how people with disabilities use the web. Web site accessibility guidelines, as well as simple evaluation tools, will be discussed. A thorough review of the article will enable even the least tech-savvy of health educators to enhance their skills in planning and evaluating web sites to promote access for people with disabilities.


This research revealed the importance of public service web portals for an e-government information system. An e-government portal is interacting with its administrators, citizens, businesses and other governments helping them increase their operations performance. The authors have developed, modeled, formulated and compared an efficient assessment framework for e-government portals. In order to accomplish such task many quantitative factors and indicators were taken under consideration; also, other frameworks have been studied and compared. The authors focused on the web portals services quantity that the interested parties should use, in order to create an well designed public services’ web portal. This research provides a framework model to evaluate the basic common digital public services that a government offers to its interactive stakeholders, so that all other countries across the world can predefine weaknesses and strengths, improve existing or formulating new e-services. The importance of the assessment framework model is thoroughly explained through the results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. e3208
Author(s):  
Fabiano Maury Raupp ◽  
Ana Rita Silva Sacramento

The article aimed to characterize the contribution of Brazilian state web portals to the transparency of the vaccination process against COVID-19. This research is descriptive, undertaken through a documentary study with a quali-quantitative approach. The purpose of the investigation comprises the web portals of the 26 Brazilian states and the Federal District. The study was guided by the application of the COVID-19 Vaccination Transparency Index (ITVC-19). The study data were obtained in six surveys carried out from the analysis of the portals, using content analysis as the processing technique. The constancy of some states at higher and lower levels (i.e., the extremes) and the evolution of others going from lower to higher levels was observed. Although the vast majority of web portals of Brazilian states contribute to the transparency of the vaccination against COVID-19, there are still states the portal of which, for being at opaque, low, or intermediary levels, seem to exist more due to a dominant technological imperative and less to favor the transparency of government actions. The study has a direct theoretical implication when it enables the development of an index that contributes to analyzing the transparency in the vaccination process against COVID-19. It is assumed that, in the future, the index may also be used for new studies on vaccination campaigns, not just this one restricted to the pandemic context. Consequently, it contributes to bridging the gap in the literature, notably the national literature. The practical contribution is also demonstrated by the provision of a diagnosis that, albeit specific, may be used by public managers interested in advancing vaccination transparency.


1969 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-270
Author(s):  
Carlos Ruiz ◽  
Claudia Gaviria ◽  
Miguel Gaitán ◽  
Rubén Manrique ◽  
Ángela Zuluaga ◽  
...  

Introduction: Implementation of teledermatology in primary care offers the possibility of treating patients using specific dermatologic knowledge in far away places with infrequent availability to these services. It is a priority to implement teledermatology services which demonstrate diagnostic reliability and satisfaction among users. Objectives and methods: To measure the diagnostic reliability of an asynchronous teledermatology web based application by means of intraobserver and interobserver concordance during teleconsultation and traditional presential («face to face») consultation. Furthermore, to evaluate user satisfaction regarding the teleconsultation and the web application.Results: A sample of 82 patients with 172 dermatologic diagnoses was obtained, in which an intraobserver concordance between 80.8% and 86.6%, and an interobserver concordance between 77.3% and 79.6% were found. Satisfaction was evaluated to be on an average of 92.5%.Conclusions: The teleconsultation reliability in teledermatology is evidenced to be high, and is susceptible of improvement through the implementation of health information standards and digital dermatologic photography protocols.


10.2196/19985 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. e19985
Author(s):  
Christian Kubb ◽  
Heather M Foran

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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chentel Cunningham ◽  
Hylein Sung ◽  
James Benoit ◽  
Jennifer Conway ◽  
Shannon D Scott

BACKGROUND Childhood heart failure is a factor in many hospital admissions each year. It can impose a steep learning curve for parents who need to learn the key information to care for their child at home. In this study, we conducted an environmental scan to identify and assess web-based knowledge translation tools about childhood heart failure for parent audiences developed within North America. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to inventory tool publicly available to parents about childhood heart failure from popular web-based venues, and assess each how each tool communicates health information and explore how they were developed. METHODS Modelled after previously published environmental scan methods, our search strategy included searching two popular internet-based venues including: 1) two App stores (Google PlayTM and Apple AppTM) and 2) GoogleTM search. Common search terms were used and results were uploaded to Microsoft Excel for screening amongst two reviewers. Inclusion criteria included: 1) content primarily focused on educating parents about their child’s heart failure, 2) English language, and 3) tools originated within North American. Two reviewers screened the application (app) store and internet search results for relevant tools. Each tool was assessed using the Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM), a validated tool that objectively assesses the literacy of health information for a particular audience. Key informants who were involved in the tool development were invited for a qualitative interview using semi structured interview guide to provide more adjunct data about the development process. Frequencies were reported to summarize App and Internet screening and SAM rating results. Key themes were identified in the semi-structured interview process. RESULTS No applications exist for parents relating to pediatric heart failure. Seventeen relevant internet tools were identified, and their suitability was assessed for the parent audience. The tools scored well in the layout and type but lower in the readability and graphics scores. Qualitative interviews with key informants revealed three key themes: 1) timely & introductory knowledge, 2) credible & trustworthy knowledge, and 3) challenges & evolution in knowledge. CONCLUSIONS This is the first environmental scan looking for parent tool relating to childhood heart failure. Findings from this study reveal that no tools scored in the superior range using the Suitability of Materials Assessment and that further work in the area of knowledge translation targeting parents needs to be done to provide effective education for this parent population. These findings will inform the development of a new resource on children’s heart failure. CLINICALTRIAL Not applicable


2013 ◽  
pp. 1294-1314
Author(s):  
Keith A. Bauer

The social consequences of the internet are profound. Evidence of this can easily be found in the enormous body of literature discussing its impact on democracy, globalization, social networking, and education. The implications of the internet for medicine have likewise received a great deal of attention from policy makers, clinicians and technology theorists. Medical privacy, in particular, has garnered the lion’s share of attention. Nevertheless, research in this area has been lacking because it either fails to unpack the conceptual and ethical complexities of privacy or overestimates the power of technology and policy to protect our medical privacy. The aims of this chapter are twofold. The first is to provide a nuanced explication of the concept of privacy, and, second, to argue that e-medicine and the policies supposedly designed to protect the privacy and confidentiality of personal health information fail to do so and in some instances make their violations easier to commit.


2019 ◽  
pp. 239-253
Author(s):  
Shipra Verma

This paper proposes a framework for an essential creation of a public health information visualization platform, for Japanese Encephalitis (JE) disease outbreaks in the Gorakhpur district, India. The Web GIS technology is used with ERDAS Apollo 2010 software at customized level, to develop architecture for Web GIS-based public health information systems. A GUI has been created using Java Server Pages (JSP) for its customization. This will help in extending the benefit of GIS and Web technology for public availability in the area for preparation of the health plan in multitier system.


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