Positive attitudes and failed queries: an exploration of the conundrums of consumer health information retrieval

Zeng, Qing T; Kogan, Sandra; Plovnick, Robert M; Crowell, Jonathan; Lacroix, Eve-Marie; Greenes, Robert A

doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2003.12.015

« Previous Next »International Journal of Medical Informatics
Volume 73, Issue 1 , Pages 45-55, February 2004

Positive attitudes and failed queries: an exploration of the conundrums of consumer health information retrieval

Qing T Zeng
- Department of Radiology, Decision Systems Group, Thorn 309, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-617-7327694; fax: +1-617-7393672.
Sandra Kogan
- Department of Radiology, Decision Systems Group, Thorn 309, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Robert M Plovnick
- Department of Radiology, Decision Systems Group, Thorn 309, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Jonathan Crowell
- Department of Radiology, Decision Systems Group, Thorn 309, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Eve-Marie Lacroix
- National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
Robert A Greenes
- Department of Radiology, Decision Systems Group, Thorn 309, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA

Received 6 October 2003; received in revised form 24 December 2003; accepted 29 December 2003.

Abstract

Several studies have found that consumers report a high level of satisfaction with the Internet as a health information resource. Belied by this positive attitude, however, are other studies reporting that consumers were often unsuccessful in searching for health information.

In this paper, we present an interview and observation study in which we asked health consumers to search for health information on the Internet after first stating their search goals. Upon the conclusion of the session they were asked to evaluate their searches.

We found that many consumers were unable to find satisfactory information when performing a specific query, while in general the group viewed health information retrieval (HIR) on the Internet in a positive light.

We analyzed the observed search sessions to determine what factors accounted for the failure of specific searches and positive attitudes, and also discussed potential informatics solutions.

Keywords: Information retrieval, Internet, Consumer health, Interview study, Observation study