Asunto(s)
Costos de la Atención en Salud , Evaluación de Procesos y Resultados en Atención de Salud/economía , Seguro de Salud Basado en Valor/economía , Compra Basada en Calidad/economía , Ahorro de Costo , Análisis Costo-Beneficio , Costos de la Atención en Salud/tendencias , Humanos , Evaluación de Procesos y Resultados en Atención de Salud/tendencias , Resultado del Tratamiento , Compra Basada en Calidad/tendenciasRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Most existing tools for measuring the quality of Internet health information focus almost exclusively on structural criteria or other proxies for quality of information, rather than evaluating information accuracy and comprehensiveness. OBJECTIVE: This research sought to build a conceptual framework that could lay the groundwork for a robust performance-measurement system for evaluating the quality of Internet health information. METHODS: Application of the quality-of-care measurement paradigm to developing a conceptual framework for defining and evaluating the quality of diabetes consumer-information Web sites. RESULTS: Performance measures related to accuracy and comprehensiveness of information can be added to structural criteria to provide a more-robust approach to Web site evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: The development and implementation of a reliable and valid method for evaluating the quality of Internet health sites could provide lay people with a tool to identify useful content more easily and distinguish between beneficial and misleading information.
Asunto(s)
Diabetes Mellitus , Servicios de Información/tendencias , Internet/tendencias , Educación del Paciente como Asunto , Evaluación de Programas y Proyectos de Salud/tendencias , Garantía de la Calidad de Atención de Salud/tendencias , Calidad de la Atención de Salud/tendencias , Guías como Asunto/normas , Humanos , Servicios de Información/normas , Internet/normas , Modelos Organizacionales , Educación del Paciente como Asunto/métodos , Educación del Paciente como Asunto/normas , Evaluación de Programas y Proyectos de Salud/normas , Calidad de la Atención de Salud/normasRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Most existing tools for measuring the quality of Internet health information focus almost exclusively on structural criteria or other proxies for quality information rather than evaluating actual accuracy and comprehensiveness. OBJECTIVE: This research sought to develop a new performance-measurement tool for evaluating the quality of Internet health information, test the validity and reliability of the tool, and assess the variability in diabetes Web site quality. METHODS: An objective, systematic tool was developed to evaluate Internet diabetes information based on a quality-of-care measurement framework. The principal investigator developed an abstraction tool and trained an external reviewer on its use. The tool included 7 structural measures and 34 performance measures created by using evidence-based practice guidelines and experts' judgments of accuracy and comprehensiveness. RESULTS: Substantial variation existed in all categories, with overall scores following a normal distribution and ranging from 15% to 95% (mean was 50% and median was 51%). Lin's concordance correlation coefficient to assess agreement between raters produced a rho of 0.761 (Pearson's r of 0.769), suggesting moderate to high agreement. The average agreement between raters for the performance measures was 0.80. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes Web site quality varies widely. Alpha testing of this new tool suggests that it could become a reliable and valid method for evaluating the quality of Internet health sites. Such an instrument could help lay people distinguish between beneficial and misleading information.