Sbaffi Laura, Rowley Jennifer
Information School, Department of Social Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom.
Information Interaction Research Group, Department of Languages, Information and Communication, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom.
J Med Internet Res. 2017 Jun 19;19(6):e218. doi: 10.2196/jmir.7579.
Internet sources are becoming increasingly important in seeking health information, such that they may have a significant effect on health care decisions and outcomes. Hence, given the wide range of different sources of Web-based health information (WHI) from different organizations and individuals, it is important to understand how information seekers evaluate and select the sources that they use, and more specifically, how they assess their credibility and trustworthiness.
The aim of this study was to review empirical studies on trust and credibility in the use of WHI. The article seeks to present a profile of the research conducted on trust and credibility in WHI seeking, to identify the factors that impact judgments of trustworthiness and credibility, and to explore the role of demographic factors affecting trust formation. On this basis, it aimed to identify the gaps in current knowledge and to propose an agenda for future research.
A systematic literature review was conducted. Searches were conducted using a variety of combinations of the terms WHI, trust, credibility, and their variants in four multi-disciplinary and four health-oriented databases. Articles selected were published in English from 2000 onwards; this process generated 3827 unique records. After the application of the exclusion criteria, 73 were analyzed fully.
Interest in this topic has persisted over the last 15 years, with articles being published in medicine, social science, and computer science and originating mostly from the United States and the United Kingdom. Documents in the final dataset fell into 3 categories: (1) those using trust or credibility as a dependent variable, (2) those using trust or credibility as an independent variable, and (3) studies of the demographic factors that influence the role of trust or credibility in WHI seeking. There is a consensus that website design, clear layout, interactive features, and the authority of the owner have a positive effect on trust or credibility, whereas advertising has a negative effect. With regard to content features, authority of the author, ease of use, and content have a positive effect on trust or credibility formation. Demographic factors influencing trust formation are age, gender, and perceived health status.
There is considerable scope for further research. This includes increased clarity of the interaction between the variables associated with health information seeking, increased consistency on the measurement of trust and credibility, a greater focus on specific WHI sources, and enhanced understanding of the impact of demographic variables on trust and credibility judgments.
互联网资源在获取健康信息方面正变得越来越重要，以至于它们可能对医疗保健决策和结果产生重大影响。因此，鉴于来自不同组织和个人的基于网络的健康信息（WHI）来源广泛，了解信息寻求者如何评估和选择他们使用的来源，更具体地说，他们如何评估这些来源的可信度和可靠性，是很重要的。
本研究的目的是回顾关于在使用WHI时信任和可信度的实证研究。本文旨在呈现关于在寻求WHI时信任和可信度的研究概况，确定影响可信度和可靠性判断的因素，并探讨影响信任形成的人口统计学因素的作用。在此基础上，旨在找出当前知识中的差距，并提出未来研究的议程。
进行了系统的文献综述。在四个多学科和四个健康导向的数据库中，使用WHI、信任、可信度及其变体的各种组合进行搜索。所选文章为2000年以后发表的英文文章；这一过程产生了3827条独特记录。应用排除标准后，对73篇文章进行了全面分析。
在过去15年中，对该主题的兴趣一直存在，文章发表在医学、社会科学和计算机科学领域，大多来自美国和英国。最终数据集中的文献分为三类：（1）将信任或可信度用作因变量的文献，（2）将信任或可信度用作自变量的文献，（3）对影响信任或可信度在寻求WHI中作用的人口统计学因素的研究。人们一致认为，网站设计、清晰的布局、交互功能以及所有者的权威性对信任或可信度有积极影响，而广告则有负面影响。关于内容特征，作者的权威性、易用性和内容对信任或可信度的形成有积极影响。影响信任形成的人口统计学因素是年龄、性别和感知健康状况。
仍有相当大的进一步研究空间。这包括提高与健康信息寻求相关变量之间相互作用的清晰度，提高信任和可信度测量的一致性，更加关注特定的WHI来源，以及增强对人口统计学变量对信任和可信度判断影响的理解。
