Cross-Cultural Quality Comparison of Online Health Information for Elderly Care on Yahoo! Answers

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2014

Keywords

geriatric, information quality, online health information, social q&a

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1002/meet.2014.14505101055

Abstract

Given the increase in global aging population, popularity of social Q&A sites and the level of geriatric health concerns from family caregivers, it raises the uncertainty about the quality of health information on community Q&A sites for family caregivers of elderly. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of geriatric health information on social Questions and Answers (Q&A) sites: Yahoo! Answers from registered nurses' perspective. A total of 60 question-and-answer sets are retrieved from regional Yahoo! Answers sites, including Australia, Canada, UK & Ireland, US, Hong Kong, Mainland China and Taiwan. A total of 126 English answers and 112 Chinese answers were examined by registered nurses and library professionals. Results show that the overall information quality provided in the Chinese group is relatively poorer than those of English especially in information quality dimensions such as Verifiability, Commercialisation and Completeness. Questioners form both the English and Chinese groups might possibly miss the best pieces of information and advices regarding the health concerns of their elderly family members since about 40% of the best answers they selected did not match health professionals' picks.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

Yes

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, v. 51, issue 1, art. 55

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS