Paper
Toward Comprehensive Health Literacy Assessment for Online Health Information: Assessing Falls Prevention Websites Designed for Older Adults and Their Caregivers
- Authors:
- Nichole Egbert; Phillip R. Reed
- Abstract
- As individuals increasingly turn to the Internet to seek health information, health professionals and scholars require means to assess the health literacy demand of online health information. Although it is common practice to consider the readability level of such information, health literacy scholars have demonstrated that other factors also affect understanding, such as format/design, accessibility, graphics, organization, content, audience engagement, and audience sensitivity. Building on the broad-reaching Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM), the purpose of this study was to provide a version adapted for online use. We coded 23 webpages based on the aforementioned criteria. The results suggest that the use of headings and explicit purposes included in the title were strengths of falls prevention websites, whereas font size, readability, and lack of interactive elements were amongst the weaker points. Based on these findings, the modified SAM can be used to evaluate the unique health literacy features of online health messages.
- Keywords
- Falls Prevention; Health Literacy; Patient Education Materials; Internet; Older Adults
- StartPage
- 20
- EndPage
- 27
- Doi
- 10.18005/PTHP0302002