Title: The use of websites for disseminating health information in developing countries: an experience from Sri Lanka

Authors: Mahinda Kommalage, Anoj Thabrew

Addresses: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna, P.O. Box 70, Galle, Sri Lanka. ' Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna, P.O. Box 70, Galle, Sri Lanka

Abstract: This study was designed to investigate the use of websites as a health education medium in Sri Lanka. Approximately 87.2% of the websites contained less than 100 webpages. The quality score was higher in the websites owned by local nonbusiness organisations compared to the websites owned by business organisations. Only 8.1% of the websites provided health education content for the general public as their main content. The total number of websites has not increased compared to the increase in internet usage in Sri Lanka during the last few years. The internet is an underutilised health education tool despite the growth of internet usage in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: health education; health information; internet; websites; disseminating health information; electronic healthcare; developing countries; Sri Lanka; e-healthcare; information dissemination; website quality.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEH.2008.022669

International Journal of Electronic Healthcare, 2008 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.327 - 338

Published online: 24 Jan 2009 *

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