TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– To overview the topic of the quality assessment and quality control of health information on the internet, particularly information targeted at patients, carers and health consumers.Design/methodology/approach– The context and background of the issue are explained. A range of key quality initiatives is described. The debates on the topic are presented. A health consumer tool produced by the author is described. Items from the literature are used to support the arguments presented.Findings– A range of quality initiatives exists, but there is neither an internationally agreed set of criteria nor a quality assessment tool. Little evidence exists to demonstrate that the criteria are correlated with good quality web sites and that the quality assessment tools are valid.Research limitations/implications– Research is needed: to identify the positive or negative effects of the use of health information from the internet on health outcomes: to understand how health consumers use the internet and choose information sources and how this behaviour matches with existing quality initiatives; to explore how criteria correlate with good quality health sites.Practical implications– This paper is a useful overview of this topic for library and information professionals in both the health and non‐health fields.Originality/value– This paper raises awareness of this topic with library and information professionals interested in performance measurement. Hopefully it will stimulate research activity on this topic from this professional group.
VL  - 6
IS  - 2
SN  - 1467-8047
DO  - 10.1108/14678040510607803
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/14678040510607803
AU  - Childs Sue
PY  - 2005
Y1  - 2005/01/01
TI  - Judging the quality of internet‐based health information
T2  - Performance Measurement and Metrics
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 80
EP  - 96
Y2  - 2024/04/26
ER  -