Preventive health information on the Internet. Qualitative study of consumers' perspectives

To explore how best to make high-quality preventive health information available to consumers on the Internet.

Focus groups.

Three urban workplaces and one local hospital with patients from a rural family medical practice.

Twenty-two men and 17 women patients.

Qualitative survey of four focus groups, analysis of transcripts and researchers' notes.

Five themes characterized participants' perceptions of a consumer website of evidence-based preventive guidelines: content expectations, website design, trustworthiness of content, marketing, and the implications of consumer health information on the Internet.

Consumers want preventive health information both for taking care of themselves and for participating in a more informed way in their health care when they see a physician. Findings of this study reveal some ways in which consumers' use of Internet health information can affect physicians' and other health professionals' work.