Annie Lau|Enrico Coiera
Impact of Web Searching and Social Feedback on Consumer Decision Making: A Prospective Online Experiment
UNSW Sydney|UNSW Sydney
world wide web increasingly become important source information health care consumer decision making however little known whether searching online resources actually improves consumers understanding health issuesthe aim study whether searching world wide web improves consumers accuracy answering health questions whether consumers understanding health issues subject change social feedbackthis prepost prospective online study convenience sample 227 undergraduate students recruited population university new south wales subjects used search engine retrieved online documents pubmed medlineplus healthinsite answered set six questions use search engine designed health care consumers presented feedback consisting summary postsearch answers provided previous subjects questions asked answer questions againthere improvement percentage correct answers searching presearch 612 vs postsearch 820 p 001 feedback subjects answers prefeedback 820 vs postfeedback 853 p 051 proportion subjects highly confident correct answers ie confident confident proportion highly confident incorrect answers significantly increased searching correct presearch 616 vs correct postsearch 955 p 001 incorrect presearch 553 vs incorrect postsearch 820 p 001 subjects confident postsearch answers 285 likely confident confident change answer feedback subjects postsearch answers chi2 1 6665 p 001searching across quality health information sources web improve consumers accuracy answering health questions however consumers confidence answer good indicator answer correct consumers confident answers searching likely influenced change views provided feedback consumers