Use of websites for disseminating health information in developing countries: an experience from Sri Lanka

The Internet is a relatively new medium for disseminating health information. Most studies on Internet usage for disseminating health information were carried out in developed countries. Very few studies were carried out in developing countries. This study was designed to investigate the quantitative and qualitative information about health related websites in Sri Lanka. Google and Yahoo search engines were used to search for Sri Lankan health websites. The key words used were 'Sri Lanka health', 'Sri Lanka medicine', Sri Lanka drug', 'Sri Lanka treatment'. Ninety eight websites were selected and data collected from 86 of these websites which were online during the period of data collection. Results show that 87.2% of websites contained less than 100 web pages. 39.5% and 20.9% of websites were owned by local non-business organizations and business organizations, respectively while 61.6% of websites were non-profitable websites. 93% of the websites were published only in English. Only 8.1% of websites provide health educational content for general public as their main content. 64.4% of websites are controlled by a Sri Lankan or a Sri Lankan organization. Quality Score is higher in the websites owned by local non-business organizations over the business organizations as well as non-profitable websites over profitable websites. Quality Score of the websites does not depend on the period of existence or whether website originated from Sri Lanka. We conclude that the total number of websites has not increased compared to the increase in internet usage during last few years in Sri Lanka. Internet is an underutilized health education tool despite the rapid growth of internet usage in Sri Lanka. Even though Internet usage has grown rapidly in most developing countries, dissemination of health information through internet may not have been developed adequately in such countries.