Website Credibility

Website Credibility

Introduction

There are several websites providing health related sources, which include information regarding complimentary health approaches. These approaches include alterative or complimentary medicine. Social media has also turned out to be a major contributor as a source of health information for a large number of people. Several online resources are effective and useful, however several sources do not have accurate information and they mislead people. Therefore, it is important for healthcare professionals and other people to look for the trustworthy and credible (Liamputtong, 2006). For this reason, they should know how to evaluate the content of the website. In this paper we will analyze the content and credibility of www.nccam. nih.gov. the URL of the website contains “http”. This paper will discuss the purpose of the website and the credibility analysis of the content displayed on this website.

Discussion

Rationale for the Selection of the Website

This website is owned by National Center for Complimentary and Alternative medicine. It is the lead agency of federal government for scientific studies on alternative and complimentary medicines. This is one of the 27 institutes which make up national institute of Health in the United States Department of health and human service (NCCA, n.d.).

Purpose of the Website

The main purpose of the website is relevant to the party who runs it and the party who pays for these services. This website aims to define the effectiveness and safety of alternative and complementary medicine with the help of rigorous scientific research. Moreover, it aims to define the roles of complimentary and alternative medicines for the improvement of health and healthcare services. People can easily search for accurate information within less time with the following organized collection of high quality up to date resources (NCCA, n.d.).

Healthfinder.gov

This website if funded by the United States Department of Health And Human Services' office of disease prevention and health promotion.

Medline Plus

The sponsor of this website is the National Library of Medicines within the NIH, i.e. National institute of health.

However, if people are looking for information regarding complementary approaches of health and alternative medicines they can use the website of NCCAM as an initiative for this purpose. NCCAM is the lead agency of federal government in United States for the purpose of scientific research on healthcare and diverse medical care systems, products and practices that are not given general consideration as a part of traditional medicine (NCCA, n.d.).

Search through Social Media

We can also search information about this website through Twitter or Facebook accounts. These accounts are official and updated, which are managed by the staff of NCCAM. These accounts also provide latest and updated resources on a wide range of complimentary health approaches (Echevarria, 2009).

Credibility of the Website

The information of content of the website is more credible if the quality of medical information on the webpage is sourced from credible professionals with scientific qualifications. Moreover, the credibility is analyzed if the material is reviewed prior to the post on websites (Echevarria, 2009).

The website of NCCAM has an editorial board for ...