Ameri Fatemeh, Keeling Kathleen, Salehnejad Reza
Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Jan 15;22(1):e13534. doi: 10.2196/13534.
Seeking health information on the internet is very popular despite the debatable ability of lay users to evaluate the quality of health information and uneven quality of information available on the Web. Consulting the internet for health information is pervasive, particularly when other sources are inaccessible because of time, distance, and money constraints or when sensitive or embarrassing questions are to be explored. Question and answer (Q&A) platforms are Web-based services that provide personalized health advice upon the information seekers' request. However, it is not clear how the quality of health advices is ensured on these platforms.
The objective of this study was to identify how platform design impacts the quality of Web-based health advices and equal access to health information on the internet.
A total of 900 Q&As were collected from 9 Q&A platforms with different design features. Data on the design features for each platform were generated. Paid physicians evaluated the data to quantify the quality of health advices. Guided by the literature, the design features that affected information quality were identified and recorded for each Q&A platform. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator and unbiased regression tree methods were used for the analysis.
Q&A platform design and health advice quality were related. Expertise of information providers (beta=.48; P=.001), financial incentive (beta=.4; P=.001), external reputation (beta=.28; P=.002), and question quality (beta=.12; P=.001) best predicted health advice quality. Virtual incentive, Web 2.0 mechanisms, and reputation systems were not associated with health advice quality.
Access to high-quality health advices on the internet is unequal and skewed toward high-income and high-literacy groups. However, there are possibilities to generate high-quality health advices for free.
尽管普通用户评估健康信息质量的能力存在争议，且网络上的健康信息质量参差不齐，但在互联网上搜索健康信息仍非常普遍。因时间、距离和资金限制无法获取其他信息来源，或要探讨敏感或尴尬问题时，通过互联网咨询健康信息的情况尤为普遍。问答平台是一种基于网络的服务，可应信息寻求者的请求提供个性化健康建议。然而，尚不清楚这些平台上的健康建议质量是如何得到保证的。
本研究的目的是确定平台设计如何影响基于网络的健康建议质量以及互联网上健康信息的平等获取。
从9个具有不同设计特征的问答平台收集了总共900个问答。生成了每个平台设计特征的数据。付费医生对数据进行评估，以量化健康建议的质量。在文献的指导下，识别并记录每个问答平台影响信息质量的设计特征。采用最小绝对收缩和选择算子以及无偏回归树方法进行分析。
问答平台设计与健康建议质量相关。信息提供者的专业知识（β=0.48；P=0.001）、经济激励（β=0.4；P=0.001）、外部声誉（β=0.28；P=0.002）和问题质量（β=0.12；P=0.001）最能预测健康建议质量。虚拟激励机制、Web 2.0机制和声誉系统与健康建议质量无关。
互联网上高质量健康建议的获取不平等，偏向高收入和高文化水平群体。然而，也有可能免费生成高质量的健康建议。
