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Web Quality Projects

The web provides an unparalleled opportunity to disseminate health information to the community. There are a large number of websites offering health information on the Internet and searching for information about health is a common reason that Internet users access the net. However, there has been considerable concern about the quality of the available health information on the web. For example, our previous research has demonstrated that the quality of the content on web-based depression sites is poor when compared to evidence-based guidelines (Griffiths & Christensen, 2000; 2002).

Consumer Indicators of Quality Information

If consumers are to derive maximum benefit from information on the web, they need tools to assist them to identify those sites which are of highest quality. In the past, it has been suggested that accountability criteria, such as disclosure of author or currency of material might be used as a non-content based measure of identifying sites of high quality. However, our research has found no evidence that such criteria are valid indicators of content quality.

However, we have found that sites with an editorial board and sites owned by organisations are of higher overall quality than their counterparts. In addition, our recent research suggests that the rating scale DISCERN may be a valid indicator of content quality. DISCERN was designed by researchers at Oxford University for use by consumers for the purpose of rating the quality of health information. Our research has shown that ratings by health professionals and consumers show high to moderately high correlations between evidence-based ratings and DISCERN ratings (Griffiths & Christensen, 2002).

In a recent study (Griffiths & Christensen, 2005) we have also found a moderate correlation between Google PageRank and evidence-based quality of websites, suggesting that Google PageRank may be a valid indicator of health quality.

Automated Search for Quality Project

More recently, we have been working in collaboration with CSIRO to develop algorithms that will permit the automatic identification of high quality depression sites. Preliminary research is very encouraging and a paper documenting our methodology and findings is currently under preparation.

Please direct inquiries about CRU’s web quality projects to Kathy.Griffiths@anu.edu.au

References

Griffiths KM, Tang TT, Hawking D, Christensen H. (2005). Automated assessment of the quality of depression websites. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 7(5), e59.

Griffiths KM, Christensen H. (2005). Website quality indicators for consumers. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 7(5), e55.

Griffiths KM, Christensen H. (2002). The quality and accessibility of Australian depression web sites on the World Wide Web. Medical Journal of Australia, 176, S97-S104.

Griffiths KM, Christensen H. (2000). Quality of web-based information on treatment of depression: cross sectional survey. British Medical Journal, 321, 1511-1515.

Charnock D, Shepperd S, Needham G, Gann R. (1999). DISCERN: an instrument for judging the quality of written consumer health information on treatment choices. Journal of Epidemiological and Community Health, 53, 105-111.

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