Health information on the internet is important for consumers. Recently, the need to evaluate
websites for the content quality of health information that may increase benefits to the public has been identified in most countries of Europe and North America. However, research that has empirically documented the quality of health information on websites, and indicated their measuring criteria is scant, which is especially true of Taiwan. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a discussion of the striking weaknesses of the related health information provided on the internet in Taiwan, and to
discuss the need to set up an internet criterion of assessing such information on the internet in this country. This paper involves a non-systematic literature review concerning health information available on the World Wide Web. It relates to advantages and disadvantages, and criteria of evaluating online health information in Taiwan. The result of this paper has revealed that only the Symbol of National Quality Health Information Online Award is undertaken by the government of Taiwan but it is not mandatory for assessing the quality of health information on websites. Public users searching health information or knowledge on the internet may suffer difficulty in judging the accuracy and validity of health-related information provided on the internet in Taiwan. Accordingly, people’s health and lifestyle may be negatively affected. In general, this paper has presented a comprehensive discussion of the available health information on the internet in Taiwan, and demonstrated the importance of
understanding the quality of health information on the internet for public users. The significance of this paper is to raise the issue that an urgent need to develop a set of independent criteria for evaluating health information on the internet in Taiwan should be highlighted and satisfied without delay.
Relation:
Asian Journal of Health and Information Sciences 2(1-4):103-115
