Quality evaluation of health answers in Yahoo! Answers: A comparison between experts and users

Abstract

This work-in-progress study investigates perceptions regarding the quality of online health answers that people share in social contexts. The current study differs from previous research by focusing on the topic of health and comparing the evaluations of users against experts. Three groups of evaluators- questioners, health reference librarians, and nurses-are invited to assess the quality of health answers posted in Yahoo! Answers. Forty evaluators from each group review a total of 400 health answers, rating them 1 to 5 according to 10 evaluation criteria. Preliminary results from the quality ratings of 10 answers evaluated by librarians and questioners indicate that librarians rated the quality of answers lower on most of the evaluation criteria than questioners. Further results and analysis will be provided at the poster presentation at the 2011 ASIST conference. This research will help librarians and nurses better understand how lay people such as their patrons and patients evaluate online health information in social contexts, leading to the offering of better health information services to these audiences. Copyright © 2011 by the authors.