Consumers’ Evaluation of Web-Based Health Information Quality: Meta-analysis

Background: The internet has become a major source of health information for general consumers. Web-based health information quality varies widely across websites and applications. It is critical to understand the factors that shape consumers’ evaluation of web-based health information quality and the role that it plays in their appraisal and use of health information and information systems.

Objective: This paper aimed to identify the antecedents and consequences of consumers’ evaluation of web-based health information quality as a means to consolidate the related research stream and to inform future studies on web-based health information quality.

Methods: We systematically searched 10 databases, examined reference lists, and conducted manual searches. Empirical studies that investigated consumers’ evaluation of web-based health information quality, credibility, or trust and their respective relationships with antecedents or consequences were included.

Results: We included 147 studies reported in 136 papers in the analysis. Among the antecedents of web-based health information quality, system navigability (ρ=0.56), aesthetics (ρ=0.49), and ease of understanding (ρ=0.49) had the strongest relationships with web-based health information quality. The strongest consequences of web-based health information quality were consumers’ intentions to use health information systems (ρ=0.58) and satisfaction with health information (ρ=0.46). Web-based health information quality relationships were moderated by numerous cultural dimensions, research designs, and publication moderators.

Conclusions: Consumers largely rely on peripheral cues and less on cues that require more information processing (eg, content comprehensiveness) to determine web-based health information quality. Surprisingly, the relationships between individual differences and web-based health information quality are trivial. Web-based health information quality has stronger effects on cognitive appraisals and behavioral intentions than on behavior. Despite efforts to include various moderators, a substantial amount of variance is still unexplained, indicating a need to study additional moderators. This meta-analysis provides broad and consistent evidence for web-based health information quality relationships that have been fractured and incongruent in empirical studies.