Evaluation of Websites that Provide Information on Alzheimer's Disease

Abstract

Good quality health-related information on the Internet is important for patients and their carers, enabling them to take greater responsibility in healthcare decisions. Carers of people with Alzheimer's disease require access to high quality medical, personal, practical and financial information. The Internet contains large quantities of health-related information and potentially has an important role to play in providing information for carers of people with Alzheimer's disease. The aim of the study was to evaluate a sample of Websites that provide information about Alzheimer's disease for carers of people with this condition using a selection of Website evaluation tools. A sample of 15 Websites providing information on Alzheimer's disease were evaluated using each of four evaluation tools. The Websites were ranked according to the scores they achieved with each tool. The correlation coefficient of the rankings of the Websites for each pair of tools was determined. There was a significant correlation between four of the six pairs of evaluation tools. Several Websites were ranked highly across the evaluation tools. The study identified problems in using generic health-information Website evaluation tools for sites providing information about specific diseases. The need to develop specific health-information Website evaluation tools and possibilities of how they might be further refined in the future were highlighted.