Official Websites of Local Health Centers in Taiwan: A Nationwide Study.
Int J Environ Res Public Health
; 16(3)2019 01 31.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30708949
ABSTRACT
Local health centers (LHCs) play a key role in public health. Because it has now become popular to seek health information on the Internet, an effective website is indispensable to an LHC. Our study aimed to survey the official websites of LHCs in Taiwan with an evaluation framework. All 369 LHCs in Taiwan were surveyed in March 2018. The evaluation indicators included health information, online interactive services, technical features, institutional information, links to external resources, website management, the last updated time, and number of visitors. The indicators were stratified by the urbanization levels of the LHCs. In total, 98.0% (n = 360) of the LHCs had official websites. The majority (n = 241) of the websites were updated within the past 30 days, and most of the websites (n = 353) provided health information. However, the information provided varied considerably. Few LHCs (n = 31) provided online interactive services in terms of an online appointment function. In terms of providing online consultation services, rural LHCs outperformed suburban and urban LHCs (16.4% versus 14.5% and 6.0%, respectively). Most LHCs in Taiwan do not seem to take full advantage of the Internet, with their websites typically serving as static bulletin boards instead of new channels of communication. Further studies could focus on the effectiveness of these websites.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Administração em Saúde Pública
/
Serviços de Saúde Comunitária
/
Portais do Paciente
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Asia
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Int J Environ Res Public Health
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Taiwan