An Assessment of the Quality and Usability of Smoking Cessation Information on the Internet
Abstract
Little is known about the quality and usability of on-line health information. This analysis evaluated smoking cessation Web sites' content quality and usability. Thirty sites were analyzed to determine their adherence to established tobacco cessation guidelines and their accessibility, usability, credibility, and currency. Most explained addiction (86.7%) and mentioned nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) (93.3%) and social support (93.3%). However, few explained potential side effects of NRT (33.3%) or which smokers should avoid using NRT (30.0%). Two sites advocated substituting smokeless tobacco or herbal cigarettes when quitting, and 16 (53.3%) provided information written at greater than an eighth-grade level. Few sites provided a search mechanism (40.0%) or offered text-only versions (30.0%), and most (83.3%) failed to indicate when content pages were last updated. Most sites adhered to established cessation guidelines. A small subset offered erroneous and potentially harmful information. Applying fundamental design principles would improve accessibility, usability, credibility, and currency.
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Reviews have attempted to rate the adequacy of behavior change websites.
“We acknowledge the important role played by reviews that attempt to rate the adequacy of behavior change websites [4-10].”
From The Information Architecture of Behavior Change Websites (2005) · cites this paper as [4]
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- Authors
- Cheh, J. A., Ribisl, K. M., & Wildemuth, B. M.
- Affiliations
- National Cancer Institute (US)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
- ORCID
- Ribisl, Kurt M.
- Venue
- Health Promotion Practice
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2003-07
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 278-287
- ISSN
- 1524-8399 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-6372
- OpenAlex
- W2163342085
- Cited by
- 38
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 8.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Health Promotion Practice (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Keywords
- smoking cessation, health information websites, online health information quality, usability, credibility, currency, nicotine replacement therapy, health literacy, web accessibility, design principles
- MeSH terms
- Health Promotion, Humans, Information Services, Quality Control, United States, Bibliometrics, Smoking Cessation, Guideline Adherence, Internet
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