NDLI: The effect of improved readability scores on consumers’ perceptions of the quality of health information on the internet

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Bates, Benjamin R. Romina, Sharon M. Ahmed, Rukhsana
Copyright Year	2007
Abstract	Background. Recent growth and use of the internet as a source of health information has raised concerns about consumers’ ability to comprehend this information. Although health scholars argue that writing web pages at an eighth-grade level or lower will help patients, few studies involve actual readers to investigate the effects of improved readability scores on partient’s perceptions of this information.Methods. This study examines American consumer evaluations of web pages written at different grade reading levels. In spring of 2005, a community-wide intercept survey was performed in a regional hub city in southeastern Ohio. Five hundred nineteen participants were randomly assigned to receive one of three messages discussing lung cancer prevention: one written at the eighth grade level, one at the ninth grade level, and one at the fist year college level. Independentt-tests were conducted to compare the messages on measures of perceived trustworthiness, truthfulness, readability, and completeness.Results. Improving the reading level of online information had no significant effect on consumers’ evaluations of the messages’ readability or completeness, nor a consistent effect on the perceived truthfulness or trustworthiness of the message.Conclusions. The results suggest that by simply changing the readability level of online information may not improve consumers; evaluation of the quality of health information on the internet. The authors offer alternative possibilities for why some sources of online health information may be seen as more valuable than others.
Starting Page	15
Ending Page	20
Page Count	6
File Format	PDF
ISSN	08858195
Journal	Journal of Cancer Education
Volume Number	22
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15430154
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2007-01-01
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Cancer Research Pharmacology/Toxicology
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health Oncology

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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