Ik? Een verhoogd risico? Een verslag van twee studies over hoe burgers betekenis geven aan informatie in online gezondheidschecks

This article reports on two qualitative user studies that were designed to understand how people interpret and give meaning to information from online health checks. The object of both studies was the Dutch PreventionConsult, consisting of a short cardiometabolic risk calculator and an elaborate survey measuring lifestyle. In study 1, 16 people completed the risk calculator. In study 2, 20 people completed the risk calculator as well as the lifestyle survey. In both studies, semi-structured interviews were held to examine how the participants had interpreted the online health (risk) information provided. A qualitative thematic analysis of the interview data revealed that people generally used existing knowledge and beliefs rather than the information provided in the health check to interpret their test results. This suggests that online health information as provided in health checks could be improved by building on these existing views, e.g. by more explicitly referring to information that people deem relevant, such as family history.