Background:

Health information is delivered to diverse audiences in a variety of formats. Language barriers and differences in information quality impair information retrieval in national languages.

Objective:

To assess changes in the quality of information in scientific publications, official press releases and mass media and to investigate information-seeking behavior by various target groups in health care.

Methods:

The project uses qualitative and quantitative methods. Firstly, information quality is assessed by applying the evaluation scheme of the 'Medien-Doktor MEDIZIN' to abstracts and full texts of scientific publications, press releases and mass media. The scheme contains 13 criteria that cover different domains relevant for good communication of health information: e.g. a sound description of effects and risks of an intervention or a description of intervention costs or novelty. Secondly, the evidence on information-seeking behavior is examined through:
1. an evidence map of existing studies on information-seeking behavior among health professionals;
2. focus group discussions with a variety of stakeholders to explore their attitudes towards information-seeking behavior and their experiences in the retrieval of health information; and,
3. an online questionnaire tailored to practitioners, hospital pharmacists and self-help groups to investigate their information-seeking behavior and their preferred information sources.

Results:

The assessment with 'Medien-Doktor MEDIZIN' indicates that there seems to be a lack of contextual information, such as a description of alternative interventions or intervention costs, in scientific publications and press releases. For the evidence map we retrieved six publications dealing with information-seeking behavior of practitioners in Germany. More detailed results will be presented at the Colloquium.

Discussion:

Evidence on information-seeking behavior in the national context of Germany is scarce and more research is needed to investigate behaviors and information sources for different stakeholders. The 'Medien-Doktor MEDIZIN' provides a useful tool to assess information quality in different formats.