Appropriate trust in online health information is associated with information platform, commercial status, and misinformation in patients with high cardiovascular risk.

BACKGROUND

The quality of online health information (OHI) on cardiovascular health is highly variable. Trusting poor quality OHI can lead to poorer health decisions. This study examined information characteristics associated with appropriate trust in OHI among patients with high cardiovascular risk.

METHODS

This is a secondary analysis from a cohort study of 270 participants with high cardiovascular risk from a primary care clinic in Malaysia. Participants recorded OHI entries and their trust levels over 2 months using a digital diary. Overall, 1194 OHI entries were included and categorised by platform, commercial status, content focus, and presence of misinformation, and assessed for quality using the DISCERN tool. Appropriate trust was determined by trust-quality matching (trusting high quality or distrusting low quality OHI). The association between information characteristics and appropriate trust was analysed using multiple logistic regression.

RESULTS

Most entries were from websites (62%) and non-commercial sources (88.2%). Misinformation was found in 23.3% (278 of 1194) of entries; 30.8% (367 of 1194) were of good or excellent quality; 51.5% (615 of 1194) were appropriately trusted. Information from websites (vs social media) (AOR 4.31, 95% CI 3.14-5.91,  < .001), non-commercial source (vs commercial) (AOR 1.59, 95% CI 1.01-2.50,  = .047), and absence of misinformation (vs presence of misinformation) (AOR 2.11, 95% CI 1.40-3.20,  < .001) were associated with higher appropriate trust.

CONCLUSIONS

OHI from websites, non-commercial sources, and information without misinformation has higher appropriate trust among patients with high cardiovascular risk. This study highlighted the need for good-quality OHI and dissemination through reliable sources.