Page 59 - Petelin, Ana, Nejc Šarabon, Boštjan Žvanut, eds. 2017. Zdravje delovno aktivne populacije ▪︎ Health of the Working-Age Population. Proceedings. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem/University of Primorska Press
P. 59
nal may have difficulty distinguishing information relevant to their condi- critical review of viewership and contents of official healthcare organization websites 57
tion. In a study where patients entered their symptoms into the Google search
engine, only about 15 % were returned their correct diagnosis as a result (Tang
and Ng, 2006). On the other hand, patients with already diagnosed conditions
can use search engines to educate themselves about their disease. Many health-
care professionals and organisations publish relevant information online, and
since many patients already know their diagnosis, they can easily identify con-
tents relevant to them (Promislow et al., 2010)a comprehensive question list
was developed in the three following areas: medical information (seven items.
It is entirely possible for patients to receive false, deceiving or even harm-
ful information online, since massive amounts of information and different
sources make it impossible to adequately control their quality (Ellsworth et
al., 2016). Patients should therefore always remain in strict co-operation with
healthcare professionals before making decisions based on web-gained infor-
mation. Online sources may have intentions that do not consider an individ-
ual’s health a priority, but rather publicity or financial gain. According to a
United Kingdom based study, public health interests are likely under-repre-
sented, since only 6 % of mastectomy related contents online were published by
healthcare organisations. The rest was published by private companies or pri-
vate healthcare providers (Light et al., 2014), thus corporative interests should
be considered as a possible threat to quality of information.
Because online information seeking is already present and will most like-
ly hold an even greater importance in the near future, this phenomenon must
be considered, not only in direct patient-healthcare professional relationship,
but also in planning public health strategies. The world wide web can be used
as an economically efficient tool for offering health promotion contents to a
vast number of patients and achieve patient empowerment with better health
outcomes. The World Wide Web ensures that anyone can publish freely, but in
reality few healthcare professionals have the knowledge needed to effectively
create online content. That is why an entry point is required – a website or plat-
form that enables an individual to publish content online without any specif-
ic knowledge or skills. In this research, we consider the official websites of Slo-
venian healthcare organisations as possible entry points for health promotion
and content sharing.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted in the period between April 13th and 14th
2017. The data acquired is freely available from website traffic estimator servic-
es. In this study, alexa.com and hyperstat.com were used to gather data. All
public Slovenian healthcare organisations listed by The Health Insurance In-
stitute of Slovenia were included in the population. Stratified sampling using
country regions as strata offered 60 potential official websites of healthcare or-
ganisations. Each website was visually evaluated during data gathering so that
presence of health promotion content could be noted. An estimate of the aver-
tion. In a study where patients entered their symptoms into the Google search
engine, only about 15 % were returned their correct diagnosis as a result (Tang
and Ng, 2006). On the other hand, patients with already diagnosed conditions
can use search engines to educate themselves about their disease. Many health-
care professionals and organisations publish relevant information online, and
since many patients already know their diagnosis, they can easily identify con-
tents relevant to them (Promislow et al., 2010)a comprehensive question list
was developed in the three following areas: medical information (seven items.
It is entirely possible for patients to receive false, deceiving or even harm-
ful information online, since massive amounts of information and different
sources make it impossible to adequately control their quality (Ellsworth et
al., 2016). Patients should therefore always remain in strict co-operation with
healthcare professionals before making decisions based on web-gained infor-
mation. Online sources may have intentions that do not consider an individ-
ual’s health a priority, but rather publicity or financial gain. According to a
United Kingdom based study, public health interests are likely under-repre-
sented, since only 6 % of mastectomy related contents online were published by
healthcare organisations. The rest was published by private companies or pri-
vate healthcare providers (Light et al., 2014), thus corporative interests should
be considered as a possible threat to quality of information.
Because online information seeking is already present and will most like-
ly hold an even greater importance in the near future, this phenomenon must
be considered, not only in direct patient-healthcare professional relationship,
but also in planning public health strategies. The world wide web can be used
as an economically efficient tool for offering health promotion contents to a
vast number of patients and achieve patient empowerment with better health
outcomes. The World Wide Web ensures that anyone can publish freely, but in
reality few healthcare professionals have the knowledge needed to effectively
create online content. That is why an entry point is required – a website or plat-
form that enables an individual to publish content online without any specif-
ic knowledge or skills. In this research, we consider the official websites of Slo-
venian healthcare organisations as possible entry points for health promotion
and content sharing.
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted in the period between April 13th and 14th
2017. The data acquired is freely available from website traffic estimator servic-
es. In this study, alexa.com and hyperstat.com were used to gather data. All
public Slovenian healthcare organisations listed by The Health Insurance In-
stitute of Slovenia were included in the population. Stratified sampling using
country regions as strata offered 60 potential official websites of healthcare or-
ganisations. Each website was visually evaluated during data gathering so that
presence of health promotion content could be noted. An estimate of the aver-
