Credibility assessment is a crucial component in the process of peopleʼs health information seeking, especially in the web context. Finding “credible” health information from a plethora of information on the web may be more challenging for older adults, who have relatively less experience with the Internet. This article reports on the findings of an exploratory study of older adultsʼ credibility assessments of online health information. The data collected through semistructured interviews with 21 older adult Internet users in the United States were analyzed based on the extended typology of web credibility (Choi & Stvilia, 2015, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 66, 2399–2414). The findings of the study revealed that older adults paid closer attention to operator‐related credibility cues and heuristics when judging the credibility of health information on the web, followed by content‐ and design‐related ones. Also, the findings suggest that participants who were younger and used the Internet more frequently employed a wider variety of cues and heuristics to evaluate the credibility of online health information. Based on these findings, both theoretical and practical implications of the research and future research directions are discussed.

中文翻译：

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老年人在线健康信息的可信度评估：一项使用扩展网络可信度类型学的探索性研究

可信度评估是人们寻求健康信息过程中的重要组成部分，尤其是在网络环境中。对于互联网经验相对较少的老年人来说，从网络上的大量信息中找到“可靠”的健康信息可能更具挑战性。本文报告了对老年人在线健康信息可信度评估的探索性研究结果。通过对美国 21 名老年互联网用户的半结构化访谈收集的数据基于网络可信度的扩展类型进行分析（Choi & Svilia，2015，信息科学与技术协会杂志，66，2399-2414）。研究结果表明，老年人在判断网络上健康信息的可信度时更关注与运营商相关的可信度线索和启发式，其次是与内容和设计相关的可信度。此外，研究结果表明，年龄较小且使用互联网更频繁的参与者使用更广泛的线索和启发式方法来评估在线健康信息的可信度。基于这些发现，讨论了研究的理论和实践意义以及未来的研究方向。研究结果表明，年龄较小且使用互联网更频繁的参与者使用更广泛的线索和启发式方法来评估在线健康信息的可信度。基于这些发现，讨论了研究的理论和实践意义以及未来的研究方向。研究结果表明，年龄较小且使用互联网更频繁的参与者使用更广泛的线索和启发式方法来评估在线健康信息的可信度。基于这些发现，讨论了研究的理论和实践意义以及未来的研究方向。