ArticleEpidemiology and health2015
What predicts the trust of online health information?
Article in Epidemiology and health, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Trust and Credibility in Web-Based Health Information: A Review and Agenda for Future Research.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Pooled it
- Social media use for general and oral health information-seeking: a qualitative study in Saudi Arabia.BMC public health · 2026Article
- How weak AI promotes exercise in China: evidence from CLDS2018.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Health Information Use and Trust: The Role of Health Literacy and Patient Activation in a Multilingual European Region.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Digital Information Exchange Between the Public and Researchers in Health Studies: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Evaluating the effectiveness and limitations of online health information tools in assessing the quality of medication-related content.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- COVID-19 Vaccine-Related Information on the WeChat Public Platform: Topic Modeling and Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Health Information Seeking From an Intelligent Web-Based Symptom Checker: Cross-sectional Questionnaire Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022Article
- Effects of information sources on public preventive behaviors in health emergencies: Evidence from a digital epidemiologic study during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- The Content and Quality of Publicly Available Information About Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia: Descriptive Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2021Article
- Evaluation of the information provided by UK dental practice websites regarding complications of dental implants.British dental journal · 2021Article
- 12 Tips for Engaging Medical Students in Health Communications.MedEdPublish (2016) · 2021Article
- Online health information in a rural residential population in Zhejiang Province, China: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2019Article
- The golden age of anti-vaccine conspiracies.Germs · 2017Article
- The Influence of eHealth Literacy on Perceived Trust in Online Health Communication Channels and Sources.Journal of health communication · 2017Article
- Is information evaluated subjectively? Social media has changed the way users search for medical information.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesLittle attention has been paid to levels of trust in online sources of health information. The objective of this study was to investigate levels of trust in various sources of health information (interpersonal channels, traditional media, and Internet media), and to examine the predictors of trust in health information available on the Internet.
methodsA questionnaire was administered to 1,300 people (20 years of age or older), evaluating levels of trust in various sources of health information.
resultsThe highest level of trust was expressed regarding interpersonal channels, with hospital physicians regarded as the most trusted source of information age and income showed an association with trust in online information sources. Elderly people were not likely to trust Internet news sources, and high incomes were found to be strongly associated with trust in online sources of information overall.
conclusionsPublic health organizations must consider the predictors for trust in various sources of information in order to employ appropriate media when targeting vulnerable individuals or developing messaging strategies for health professionals.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.