How well are health information websites displayed on mobile phones? Implications for the readability of health information
Christina Cheng A B and Matthew Dunn AA School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, Vic. 3125, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: christina.cheng@deakin.edu.au
Health Promotion Journal of Australia 28(1) 15-20 https://doi.org/10.1071/HE15127
Submitted: 28 October 2015 Accepted: 14 April 2016 Published: 2 June 2016
Journal Compilation © Australian Health Promotion Association 2017 Open Access CC BY-NC-ND
Abstract
Issue addressed: More than 87% of Australians own a mobile phone with Internet access and 82% of phone owners use their smartphones to search for health information, indicating that mobile phones may be a powerful tool for building health literacy. Yet, online health information has been found to be above the reading ability of the general population. As reading on a smaller screen may further complicate the readability of information, this study aimed to examine how health information is displayed on mobile phones and its implications for readability.
Methods: Using a cross-sectional design with convenience sampling, a sample of 270 mobile webpages with information on 12 common health conditions was generated for analysis, they were categorised based on design and position of information display.
Results: The results showed that 71.48% of webpages were mobile-friendly but only 15.93% were mobile-friendly webpages designed in a way to optimise readability, with a paging format and queried information displayed for immediate viewing.
Conclusion: With inadequate evidence and lack of consensus on how webpage design can best promote reading and comprehension, it is difficult to draw a conclusion on the effect of current mobile health information presentation on readability.
So what?: Building mobile-responsive websites should be a priority for health information providers and policy-makers. Research efforts are urgently required to identify how best to enhance readability of mobile health information and fully capture the capabilities of mobile phones as a useful device to increase health literacy.
Key word: health literacy.
References
[1] Australian Bureau of Statistics. Mobile handset subscribers. 2013. Available from: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/8153.0Chapter8December%202013 [Verified 10 January 2015].[2] Google Australia. What users want most from mobile sites today. 2012. Available from: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com.au/en/au/events/thinkmultiscreen/pdf/gomo-study-australia-logo.pdf [Verified 6 October 2014].
[3] Cheng C, Dunn M (2015) Health literacy and the Internet: a study on the readability of Australian online health information. Aust NZ J Publ Heal 39, 309–14.
[4] Fitzsimmons PR, Michael BD, Hulley JL, Scott GO (2010) A readability assessment of online Parkinson’s disease information. J R Coll Physicians Edinb 40, 292–6.
| A readability assessment of online Parkinson’s disease information.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 1:STN:280:DC%2BC3M%2FhvFWluw%3D%3D&md5=95f38ddbc6e27126b92633aa51209f04CAS | 21132132PubMed |
[5] McInnes N, Haglund BJA (2011) Readability of online health information: implications for health literacy. Inform Health Soc Care 36, 173–89.
| Readability of online health information: implications for health literacy.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 21332302PubMed |
[6] Walsh TM, Volsko TA (2008) Readability assessment of Internet-based consumer health information. Respir Care 53, 1310–5.
[7] Christmann S. Health literacy and Internet: recommendations to promote health literacy by the means of the Internet. 2005. Available from: http://eurohealthnet.eu/sites/eurohealthnet.eu/files/publications/pu_8.pdf [Verified 10 November 2014].
[8] Dart JM, Gallois C (2010) Community desires for an online health information strategy. Australian Health Review 34, 467–76.
| Community desires for an online health information strategy.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 21108909PubMed |
[9] Kickbusch I, Pelikan J, Apfel F, Fsouros A. Health literacy: The solid facts. 2013. Available from: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/190655/e96854.pdf [Verified 10 November 2014].
[10] Öquist G. Three eye movement studies of mobile readability. In Lumsden J, editor. Handbook of research on user interface design and evaluation for mobile technology (Vols 1 and 2). pp 945–971. Hershey: Information Science Reference/IGI Global; 2008.
[11] Singh R, Sumeeth M, Miller J (2011) Evaluating the readability of privacy policies in mobile environments. IJMHCI 3, 55–78.
| Evaluating the readability of privacy policies in mobile environments.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
[12] ExactTarget. 2014 mobile behavior report. 2014. Available from: http://www.exacttarget.com/sites/exacttarget/files/deliverables/etmc-2014mobilebehaviorreport.pdf [Verified 5 October 2014].
[13] Nicholas D, Clark D, Rowlands I, Jamali HR (2013) Information on the go: a case study of European mobile users. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 64, 1311–22.
| Information on the go: a case study of European mobile users.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
[14] Schade A. The fold manifesto: why the page fold still matters. 2015. Available from: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/page-fold-manifesto/ [Verified 6 February 2015].
[15] Google. Above the fold. Available from: https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/132618?hl=en [Verified 10 January 2015].
[16] Fukaya TY, Ono S, Minakuchi M, Nakashima S, Hayashi M, Ando H. Reading text on a smart phone: scrolling vs. paging: toward designing effective electronic manuals. 2011 International Conference on User Science and Engineering (i-USEr); 2011.
[17] Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. National health priority areas. 2014. Available from: http://www.aihw.gov.au/national-health-priority-areas/ [Verified 10 November 2014].
[18] Google. Trends: explore the 2013 zeitgeist. 2013. Available from: http://www.google.com/trends/topcharts#vm=chart&cid=zg222&geo=AU&date=2013&cat= [Verified 11 November 2014].
[19] Jadhav A, Andrews D, Fiksdal A, Kumbamu A, McCormick JB, Misitano A, Nelsen L, Ryu E, Sheth A, Wu S, Pathak J (2014) Comparative analysis of online health queries originating from personal computers and smart devices on a consumer health information portal. J Med Internet Res 16, e160
| Comparative analysis of online health queries originating from personal computers and smart devices on a consumer health information portal.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 25000537PubMed |
[20] Fox S, Duggan M. Health online 2013. 2013. Available from: http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/01/15/health-online-2013/ [Verified 10 November 2014].
[21] StatCounter. StatCounter global stats: top 5 mobile search engines in Australia from Sept 2013 to Sept 2014. 2014. Available from: http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_search_engine-AU-monthly-201309-201409 [Verified 22 October 2014].
[22] Church K, Smyth B, Cotter P, Bradley K (2007) Mobile information access: a study of emerging search behavior on the mobile Internet. ACM Trans Web 1–38.
| Mobile information access: a study of emerging search behavior on the mobile Internet.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
[23] Kickbusch I (2008) Health literacy: an essential skill for the twenty-first century. Health Educ 108, 101–4.
| Health literacy: an essential skill for the twenty-first century.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
[24] Nutbeam D (2000) Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century. Health Promot Int 15, 259–67.
| Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health education and communication strategies into the 21st century.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
[25] Öquist G, Lundin K. Eye movement study of reading text on a mobile phone using paging, scrolling, leading, and RSVP. Proceedings of the 6th international conference on mobile and ubiquitous multimedia. Oulu, Finland: ACM; 2007. pp. 176–183.
[26] Nielsen J. Scrolling and attention. 2010. Available from: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/scrolling-and-attention/ [Verified 5 January 2015].
[27] Loranger H. Infinite scrolling is not for every website. 2014. Available from: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/infinite-scrolling/ [Verified 3 January 2015].
[28] Summers K, Summers M (2004) Making the web friendlier for lower-literacy users. Intercom (Des Moines) 51, 19–21.
[29] Westlund O, Gomez-Barroso J-L, Compano R, Feijoo C (2011) Exploring the logic of mobile search. Behav Inf Technol 30, 691–703.
| Exploring the logic of mobile search.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
[30] Bessell TL, Silagy CA, Anderson JN, Hiller JE, Sansom LN (2002) Prevalence of South Australia’s online health seekers. Aust N Z J Public Health 26, 170–3.
| Prevalence of South Australia’s online health seekers.Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | 12054338PubMed |
