Through the internet, the public has access to a growing supply of information on health and disease. However, a concern has emerged for the quality of health information documents contained on the World Wide Web. Lack of evaluation and oversight, and ease of publication, have led to inaccurate and misleading health-related publications on the Internet. For those seeking easy ways to identify highquality, reliable information, rating systems to evaluate quality of health infornation on the internet should be provided and developed. There is a need for criteria in Web page construction and evaluation.
This article reviews and discusses elements to evaluate health information sites on the internet. The criteria include quality of content( currency, references, readability, etc.), authorship (identification of authors and contributors, author credentials), purpose, design and aesthetics, functionality, contact address and feedback mechanism, and privacy. The criteria suggested may be useful to providers and users of health information on the Internet. The criteria have been developed with the understanding that they will require ongoing reevaluation and frequent revision to keep pace with evolbing technology and practices on the internet. There is a need to develop a simple criteria that the general people can understand and use.
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