The Quality of Spanish Health Information Websites: An Emerging Disparity

Spurred by the explosion of information technology and access to information, Internet health sites used to gather information about disease and wellness have become an accepted health education tool (Sciamanna, Clark, Houston & Diaz, 2002). There is growing evidence of concerted efforts to use the Internet to increase the access of health information to underserved populations such as Hispanics, a subpopulation with significant disparity in access to health care and health information (Hartel & Mehling, 2002). Many Hispanics are in danger of being left behind in the process, not because they reside on the wrong side of the "technology-divide," but because they reside on the wrong side of the "quality gap." Although 36% of Hispanics report having Internet access (Barreto, Ibarra, Macias & Pachon, 2000), the full advantage of the Internet requires that they have access to quality information. And while there has been significant work carried out on the reliability of health material on the Internet, only a few studies have looked at the quality of the health information on the Web written in Spanish (Berland et al., 2001). In this study, 10 health themes were searched using popular search engines to generate fifty health Websites aimed at providing Spanish speakers health information. The sites were then evaluated by two raters using a 16-question assessment tool that was validated in previous research done on Internet health Websites. Summated Kappa coefficients on the reviewer ratings were found to have high inter-rater reliability (r =.78). The results of this evaluation indicated that there is significant variability in the quality of health information on the Web. Furthermore, this lack of consistency in quality in health Websites is more likely to be seen in those developed and managed within Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe. The article concludes that a mechanism should be developed to standardize the quality of the health information on the Internet, and to ensure the Internet as a promising vehicle through which to eliminate health disparities in Spanish populations. (C) 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.