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How to Find Quality Health Websites


This post will teach you some basic ways to make sure the information you are receiving online is safe and from a reputable source.

The easiest and fastest way is to look at the ending of the website. Trusted websites usually will end in .org (organizational sites), .gov (government sites), .edu (educational sites). This is the general rule, and there are few exceptions to this, but this is a good place to start.  Follow this by looking for an "About Us" section. This will let you know who is running the website and if they are providing the information they claim to. This is also a good place to find if they are trying to sell you something.

Once you've identified that it comes from a good source look to see when it was last updated. If you are looking for most current information on a disease and the website hasn't been updated for 10 years, there might be better information out there. Also, look to see where the information came from. Is it a peer reviewed source or another credible source?

Finally look at the privacy policy. This is a great place to know if your information is safe. Does the website sell your information to third parties? How does it collect the information? These are important things to understand before you should go and type in all your private information. Websites have these disclosures that most people pass by or don't think of. It is important to keep your information secure to make sure you know where the information will be going to.

The following is a list of reliable sources of information:
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/

Department of Health and Human Services
https://www.hhs.gov/

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
https://nccih.nih.gov/

Medline Plus
https://medlineplus.gov/

Health IT
https://www.healthit.gov/


Source from National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. (2018). Finding and evaluating online resources. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Retrieved from: https://nccih.nih.gov/health/webresources

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References

Stoyanov, S.R., Hides, L., Kavanagh, D.J., Zelenko, O., Tjondronegoro, D., & Mani, M. (2015). Mobile app rating scale: A new tool for assessing the quality of health mobile apps. JMIR mHealth and uHealth 3(1), 27. doi: 10.2196/mhealth.3422

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Health Information Center. (2015). Support Groups HealthFinder.gov. Retrieved from: https://healthfinder.gov/FindServices/SearchContext.aspx?topic=833

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Health Information Center. (2012). What is a patient portal? HealthFinder.gov Retrieved from: https://www.healthit.gov/providers-professionals/faqs/what-patient-portal

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. (2018). Finding and evaluating online resources. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Retrieved from: https://nccih.nih.gov/health/webresources

Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development. (2018). Computer Basics. Utah Broadband. Retrieved from https://broadband.utah.gov/digital-literacy/computer-basics/