Widely Accepted Credibility Criteria for Online Health-related Information Are Not Correlated with Content Quality of Stroke Webpages in Two Languages of Central and Eastern European Countries

Abstract

Background:Finding accurate health-related information on the Internet may be a real challenge for users lacking the critical skills necessary to assess the validity of online content, even if they browse websites that are compliant with credibility criteria. The aim of the study was to check whether an overall high website credibility or compliance to any of the individual criteria for credibility are correlated/associated with a higher quality of health-related information on a sample of Romanian and Hungarian stroke-related websites. Methods: The crosssectional study included a sample of 50 websites presenting stroke for the general population in Romanian and Hungarian language. The websites' compliance with 12 widely recognized credibility criteria, and the completeness and accuracy of the stroke-related articles found on the respective sites were systematically assessed by two independent evaluators applying a common evaluation procedure. Results: The mean value of the credibility score was 4.3 points (95% CI: 3.9-4.8), the mean value of the completeness score was 4.8 points (95% CI: 4.2-5.5), and the mean value of the accuracy score was 6.6 points (95% CI: 6.3-6.8). Correlation coefficients between the credibility score and completeness/accuracy score did not reach statistical significance (Spearman rho = 0.038, p = 0.793 and Spearman rho = 0.156, p = 0.278, respectively). With a few exceptions, the t-tests for independent sample comparison have shown no significant differences between websites that complied and those that did not comply with each individual credibility criterion. Conclusions: The mean credibility score of the Romanian and Hungarian stroke-related websites was poor and it was not correlated with neither completeness nor accuracy of the information displayed on the respective pages. With a few, practically irrelevant exceptions, compliance with individual credibility criteria was not associated with higher content quality on the investigated sample. 540136 Tîrgu Mureș, Romania. Tel +40 265 212 111 Alex Otniel Popescu • Str. Gheorghe Marinescu nr. 38, 540139 Tîrgu Mureș, Romania. Tel +40 265 215 551 David Maior • Str. Gheorghe Marinescu nr. 38, 540139 Tîrgu Mureș, Romania. Tel +40 265 215 551 Mihaela Dănilă • Str. Gheorghe Marinescu nr. 50, 540136 Tîrgu Mureș, Romania, Tel +40 0265 210 900 Mihaela Dobria • Str. Gheorghe Marinescu nr. 38, 540139 Tîrgu Mureș, Romania. Tel +40 265 215 551

What Patients Find on the Internet When Looking for Information About Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: Multilanguage Cross-sectional Assessment

“…In the case of German language websites, the compliance with credibility criteria exhibited statistically significant, moderate strength correlations with the websites’ coverage of the topic (ie, completeness and accuracy). The lack of consistent correlations between credibility and content quality has been previously reported in investigations focusing on various medical conditions, such as stroke and depression or procedures such as first aid instructions in case of choking [ 17 - 19 ]. The results may suggest that the selected credibility criteria are not reliable indicators of information quality on PCI-related websites in the studied languages, and therefore, cannot be recommended to nonprofessionals as marks of trustworthiness.…”

La credibilidad de los medios y de la informaci�n sobre la salud entre los habitantes de la Ciudad de M�xico durante la pandemia COVID-19 (julio-diciembre 2020)

“…El interés por este tema surgió durante esa época con el fin de aumentar el apoyo de las personas hacia la guerra, estudiar el cambio de actitudes y desarrollar una teoría de la persuasión (Self, 1996). A partir de entonces, se han originado múltiples investigaciones, que en los últimos años se han vuelto mucho más específicas, puesto que se enfocan en la credibilidad de los mensajes de los nuevos medios y de los nuevos nuevos nuevos medios, así como en la credibilidad de los medios como fuentes de información (Sbaffi & Rowley, 2017;Shin, Lee & Hwang, 2017;Thon & Jucks, 2017;Borah & Xiao, 2018;De Meulenaer, De Pelsmacker & Dens, 2018;Embacher, McGloin & Richards, 2018;Klawitter & Hargittai, 2018;Machackova & Smahel, 2018;Popescu et al, 2018;Valizadeh-Haghi, Rahmatizadeh, Ansari, & Hamzehei, 2018;Choi, 2020;Masílamani, Sriram & Rozario, 2020;Song, Zhang & Yu, 2020;Chang, Zhang & Gwizdka, 2021), investigaciones que recalcan la vinculación entre la credibilidad y las percepciones, la utilidad percibida, la construcción de creencias y comportamientos, la experiencia de la fuente del mensaje, la facilidad para obtener la información, la calidad de la información, la experiencia en el uso de tecnologías digitales, los procesos de búsqueda de información, la retroalimentación recibida, los motivos personales, el diseño de la información, además de las características biológicas de los autores, permiten la construcción de una identidad digital de los emisores y los usuarios.…”