Poor presentation approaches on websites with comparative health care information

The presentation of online comparative health care information can be improved. To facilitate consumers’ use of this kind of information, the information should be limited to only those indicators that consumers actually include in their decisions. In addition, the meaning of the information should be straightforward and the information should be displayed by using unambiguous presentation formats. This was shown in a NIVEL study, on which Olga Damman defended her thesis at Tilburg University.

The mere disclosure of comparative health care information will not be sufficient to engage people in active, well-informed decision making, though this is one of the preconditions for successful regulated competition in health care. We know from previous research that people rather turn to friends, family and physicians for advice. However, it is also known that people are interested in comparative health care information. Olga Damman reviewed how this information is presented internationally, and examined presentation approaches that support consumers’ health care decisions. For this study,  Damman used the Consumer Quality Index (CQ-index), the Dutch standard to measure patients’ experiences with health care.

Presentation
The way the information was presented was shown to be an important barrier for consumers. Current comparative health care information is far too complex. A striking result was that 12% of the respondents in an experiment failed to select the best performing health care provider, though this was a relatively easy task. Furthermore, 23% of the questions about this information were incorrectly answered. “Websites provide too much information,” says Olga Damman, “the information is often irrelevant, the language on websites is too complex, and all kinds of symbols and numbers are disorderly presented. In fact, it is not unsurprisingly that people quit.”

Clear and accessible
“Comparative health care information should actually be as easy to understand as is information that one gets from family and friends, but at the same time reliable, that is, created using sound methods,” says Damman. “That makes it not very easy to create a good website. But if we want the information to be more effectively used by consumers, we should invest in clear and accessible information. Information on the web should be adjusted to consumers’ own perceptions and needs. It is undesirable that large numbers of consumers don’t use the information simply because they fail to understand it, or because they become distressed by contradictory information. In that case, comparative health care information overshoots its goal.”

Funding organisations
- Ministry of Health Welfare and Sports
- ZonMw
- RIVM