The impact of web-based diabetes risk calculators on information processing and risk perceptions.

As consumer demand for online health information grows, many organizations are providing personalized and interactive health risk communication tools. In response, there is a need to better understand how effective these features are in influencing user attention, information processing and risk perceptions. This study randomly assigned 100 middle-aged and elderly adult users to one of three versions of an experimental type 2 diabetes "risk calculator" in order to determine if personalized risk estimates and interactive risk feedback impact usage behavior and beliefs about future diabetes onset. Results suggest that personalization and interactive features did not lead to increases in user attention or systematic information processing. The experiment provided only modest evidence that personalization was related to increased accuracy in absolute diabetes risk perceptions. Future studies are warranted to more precisely explain the descriptive and normative implications when laypersons use web-based risk communication tools.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes