TY - JOUR
T1 - Online health consumer behaviour
T2 - What informs user decisions on information quality?
AU - Afful-Dadzie, Eric
AU - Afful-Dadzie, Anthony
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - Around the world, the use of Online Health Information (OHI) is on the increase. This is even more prevalent in developing economies where poor healthcare access and delivery present OHI as a potent alternative to physician consultations. This phenomenon grants the online health information seeker the sole decision-making responsibility of determining the quality of OHI. Given the potential consequences of incorrect medical advice, it is important to understand what criteria constitutes quality OHI from the perspective of users so as to inform better OHI publication and design. Using choice-based conjoint analysis as a preference modelling technique, the results indicate that, in order of importance, OHI seekers view the credibility of the author or their affiliation as a key measure of OHI quality, while the provision of internal search functionality is viewed as a measure of design quality. OHI seekers however showed a less preference for web portals that store and process user data. The OHI quality preferences obtained in the study were used to audit selected OHI portals to ascertain their level of conformity with the observed user preferences.
AB - Around the world, the use of Online Health Information (OHI) is on the increase. This is even more prevalent in developing economies where poor healthcare access and delivery present OHI as a potent alternative to physician consultations. This phenomenon grants the online health information seeker the sole decision-making responsibility of determining the quality of OHI. Given the potential consequences of incorrect medical advice, it is important to understand what criteria constitutes quality OHI from the perspective of users so as to inform better OHI publication and design. Using choice-based conjoint analysis as a preference modelling technique, the results indicate that, in order of importance, OHI seekers view the credibility of the author or their affiliation as a key measure of OHI quality, while the provision of internal search functionality is viewed as a measure of design quality. OHI seekers however showed a less preference for web portals that store and process user data. The OHI quality preferences obtained in the study were used to audit selected OHI portals to ascertain their level of conformity with the observed user preferences.
KW - Developing country
KW - Information quality
KW - Online consumer sophistication
KW - Online health consumer behaviour
KW - Online health information
KW - Web portals
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125678876&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100064
DO - 10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100064
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125678876
SN - 2451-9588
VL - 3
JO - Computers in Human Behavior Reports
JF - Computers in Human Behavior Reports
M1 - 100064
ER -