Perceptions of the authority of health information. Case study: digital interactive television and the Internet

As part of a Department of Health funded project nearly 2000 people were surveyed as to their use of two digital health information services, one on the Web and the other on digital interactive television (DiTV). The website was of a commercial company-Surgerydoor-and the DiTV service NHS based. This paper concentrates on the issue of trust in digital health information. Two of the main findings were that advertising was found to have an effect on trust, though the quality and type of advertising will impact in different ways on trustworthiness. DiTV subscribers who had either used the Living Health channel which carried NHS branded health information or had heard of the service, were more likely to say that the NHS was a symbol of trust for them compared with DiTV subscribers who had not used the service.