Online health information seeking andinformation quality: A preliminarycontemplation

Abstract

The healthcare industry has undergone a rapid change as the internet shows latent abilities to assist in information seeking and decision making regarding self-care and health-related issues. Therefore, it is essential to discern issues concerning the quality of the information and the system. Thus, this paper aims to explore the current issues in information quality, system quality and health risks within the context of online health information seeking. First, a literature review is conducted to gather information about the issues in detail. Second, a preliminary study is implemented to clarify the existence of the research problem in the real world. Relying on online survey method, the data were collected from doctors, health professionals, nurses, and consumers. The resultsfound that the main issue in information quality is the consumers' lack of ability to distinguish quality health information, whereas, the lack of system integration is the major problem associated with system quality. 88.6% of the respondents had underlined that health information could be misleading as a vital health risk. This study is a significant addition to the literature, in that it confirms the impacts of information quality, system quality and health risks on consumers’ behavior in health information seeking while using e-health websites.