An evaluation study of dementia information providing websites in Korea

PURPOSE: The present study purposed to investigate and analyze domestic websites providing information about dementia and to suggest future directions for the development of dementia-related websites. METHOD: For this purpose, the researcher selected 13 domestic websites that were available in November and December 2004, and evaluated them in terms of construction, operation, accessibility and contents on a scale 4 point (0~3). RESULT: The construction of dementia-related websites got 6-13 out of 18 points, which suggests that management policies for the operation of dementia-related websites are inadequate. The operation of dementia-related websites got 7-15 out of 24 points. In particular, all 13 sites got a low score in the aspect of continuance. With regard to accessibility, the sites were evaluated on how easily users could access the sites and they got 2-8 out of 15 points. In evaluating contents, the sites got 9-18 out of 21 points with regard to the purpose and appropriateness of the contents. CONCLUSION: This shows that most sites did not provide diverse types of dementia-related information. Because it is highly advantageous to perform primary dementia-preventing management through websites, this study proposes to develop a website evaluation system in order to provide high quality dementia-related information.