Trial reportPloS one2012
Evaluation of a web portal for improving public access to evidence-based health information and health literacy skills: a pragmatic trial.
Trial report in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01266798 (Effects of a Patient Directed Web-portal to Improve Health Literacy Skills), which is not on this map. Cited by 16 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effects of a Patient Directed Web-portal to Improve Health Literacy Skills
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Do studies of interventions to improve laypeople's critical thinking about health choices assess potential harms? A systematic review.BMJ open · 2026Pooled it
- Health Literacy in Web-Based Health Information Environments: Systematic Review of Concepts, Definitions, and Operationalization for Measurement.Journal of medical Internet research · 2018Pooled it
- Educational interventions to improve people's understanding of key concepts in assessing the effects of health interventions: a systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Interventions and assessment tools addressing key concepts people need to know to appraise claims about treatment effects: a systematic mapping review.Systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Trial
- Interventions to promote critical health literacy: a scoping review.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Article
- Surgical Decision-Making Experience of Patients with Lumbar Disc Herniation: A Qualitative Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2025Article
- An integrative systematic review on interventions to improve layperson's ability to identify trustworthy digital health information.PLOS digital health · 2024Article
- 'You have to have a level of trust': Consumer-described health literacy barriers and enablers to engaging with health care professionals.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2023Article
- Community health literacy outcome measurement practices: A scoping review of recent interventions.Health science reports · 2022Article
- Understanding the Current Landscape of Direct-to-Consumer Health Literacy Interventions.Perspectives in health information managemen · 2022Article
- Development, implementation and evaluation of an online course on evidence-based healthcare for consumers.BMC health services research · 2020Article
- Article
- Design and analysis of longitudinal trials of antimicrobial use at the end of life: to give or not to give?Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2019Review
- "A waste of time without patients": The views of patient representatives attending a workshop in evidence-based practice.Journal of evidence-based medicine · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUsing the conceptual framework of shared decision-making and evidence-based practice, a web portal was developed to serve as a generic (non disease-specific) tailored intervention to improve the lay public's health literacy skills.
objectiveTo evaluate the effects of the web portal compared to no intervention in a real-life setting.
methodsA pragmatic randomised controlled parallel trial using simple randomisation of 96 parents who had children aged <4 years. Parents were allocated to receive either access to the portal or no intervention, and assigned three tasks to perform over a three-week period. These included a searching task, a critical appraisal task, and reporting on perceptions about participation. Data were collected from March through June 2011.
resultsUse of the web portal was found to improve attitudes towards searching for health information. This variable was identified as the most important predictor of intention to search in both samples. Participants considered the web portal to have good usability, usefulness, and credibility. The intervention group showed slight increases in the use of evidence-based information, critical appraisal skills, and participation compared to the group receiving no intervention, but these differences were not statistically significant.
conclusionDespite the fact that the study was underpowered, we found that the web portal may have a positive effect on attitudes towards searching for health information. Furthermore, participants considered the web portal to be a relevant tool. It is important to continue experimenting with web-based resources in order to increase user participation in health care decision-making.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01266798.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.