SynthesisJournal of medical Internet research2015
Low health literacy and evaluation of online health information: a systematic review of the literature.
Synthesis in Journal of medical Internet research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 284 papers, 11 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
284 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Relation Between eHealth Literacy and Online Health Information-Seeking Behavior: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Pooled it
- Association Between Patient Race/Ethnicity, Health Literacy, Socio-Economic Status, and Incidence of Medication Errors: A Systematic Review.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Pooled it
- Extending Signaling Theory in Online Health Communities to Address Medical Information Asymmetry: Systematic Review With Narrative Synthesis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Interventions to Improve Digital Health Literacy in Forced Migrant Populations: Mixed Methods Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Digital pathways to healthcare: a systematic review for unveiling the trends and insights in online health information-seeking behavior.Frontiers in public health · 2025Pooled it
- Digitally Delivered Interventions to Improve Nutrition Behaviors Among Resource-Poor and Ethnic Minority Groups With Type 2 Diabetes: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- How do socioeconomic determinants of health affect the likelihood of living with HTLV-1 globally? A systematic review with meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Consumers' Evaluation of Web-Based Health Information Quality: Meta-analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Pooled it
- Examining Different Factors in Web-Based Patients' Decision-Making Process: Systematic Review on Digital Platforms for Clinical Decision Support System.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- The Health Literacy Status and Its Role in Interventions in Iran: A Systematic and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Patient and carer experience of nutrition care throughout treatment for head and neck cancer: a systematic qualitative review and thematic synthesis.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2020Pooled it
- Teaching Australian high school students to think critically about health claims: a cluster randomized trial.Health education research · 2023Trial
- Assessing the Effect of Nonvisual Information Factors in Pandemic-Related Video Communication: Randomized Controlled Between-Subjects Experiment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- Effectiveness of a telerehabilitation intervention using ReCOVery APP of long COVID patients: a randomized, 3-month follow-up clinical trial.Scientific reports · 2023Trial
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of NoteAid in a Community Hospital Setting: Randomized Trial of Electronic Health Record Note Comprehension Interventions With Patients.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Trial
- Consulting Dr. Google: Two experimental studies on seeking mental health information online.Internet interventions · 2026Article
- [Mapping municipal psychosocial services for children and parents: access and coordination barriers in preventive care-a mixed methods study].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2026Article
- Numeracy and recall of Alzheimer's disease risk information: Effects of risk format in a Latino community.Patient education and counseling · 2026Article
- Covert Promotional Cancer-Related Content in Korean Search Engines: Computational Content Analysis of Naver and Google.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Association Between Parental eHealth Literacy and Self-Reported Child Heat-Protection Practices: A Cross-Sectional Study in Türkiye.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
224 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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
backgroundRecent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in consumer online health information seeking. The quality of online health information, however, remains questionable. The issue of information evaluation has become a hot topic, leading to the development of guidelines and checklists to design high-quality online health information. However, little attention has been devoted to how consumers, in particular people with low health literacy, evaluate online health information.
objectiveThe main aim of this study was to review existing evidence on the association between low health literacy and (1) people's ability to evaluate online health information, (2) perceived quality of online health information, (3) trust in online health information, and (4) use of evaluation criteria for online health information.
methodsFive academic databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Communication and Mass-media Complete) were systematically searched. We included peer-reviewed publications investigating differences in the evaluation of online information between people with different health literacy levels.
resultsAfter abstract and full-text screening, 38 articles were included in the review. Only four studies investigated the specific role of low health literacy in the evaluation of online health information. The other studies examined the association between educational level or other skills-based proxies for health literacy, such as general literacy, and outcomes. Results indicate that low health literacy (and related skills) are negatively related to the ability to evaluate online health information and trust in online health information. Evidence on the association with perceived quality of online health information and use of evaluation criteria is inconclusive.
conclusionsThe findings indicate that low health literacy (and related skills) play a role in the evaluation of online health information. This topic is therefore worth more scholarly attention. Based on the results of this review, future research in this field should (1) specifically focus on health literacy, (2) devote more attention to the identification of the different criteria people use to evaluate online health information, (3) develop shared definitions and measures for the most commonly used outcomes in the field of evaluation of online health information, and (4) assess the relationship between the different evaluative dimensions and the role played by health literacy in shaping their interplay.
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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.