JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The eCOVID19 Recommendations Map & Gateway to Contextualization (RecMap) website was developed to identify all Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) guidelines, assess the credibility and trustworthiness of the guidelines, and make recommendations understandable to various stakeholder groups. To date, little has been done to understand and explore parents’ experiences when accessing and utilizing the RecMap website for COVID-19 health decision making.

Objective:

To explore 1) where parents look for COVID-19 health information and why, 2) parents’ user experience when accessing and utilizing the RecMap website to make health decisions, and 3) what knowledge mobilization activities are needed to increase parents’ awareness, use and engagement with the RecMap website.

Methods:

We conducted a qualitative descriptive study, utilizing semi-structured interviews and a think-aloud activity with parents of children under 18 years living in Canada. Participants were asked to provide feedback on the RecMap website and to “think-aloud” as they navigated the website to find relevant COVID-19 health recommendations. Demographic information was collected using an online questionnaire. A hybrid deductive/inductive thematic approach guided analysis and data were synthesized into themes and sub-themes.

Results:

Twenty-one participants (n=13 [62%] mothers) were interviewed and participated in a think-aloud activity. Data were categorized into four sections representative of key elements that deductively and inductively emerged from the data: 1) parent information seeking behaviors and preferences for COVID-19, 2) RecMap website usability, 3) perceived usefulness of the RecMap website, and 4) knowledge mobilization strategies to increase awareness, use and engagement of the RecMap website. Parents primarily used the internet to find COVID-19 information and focused on sources that they determined to be credible, trustworthy, simple and engaging. As the pandemic evolved, participants’ information seeking-behaviors changed, particularly related to their topics of interest and search frequency. Most parents were not aware of the RecMap website prior to this study but found satisfaction with its concept and layout, and expressed intentions to use and share it with others. Parents experienced some barriers to utilizing the RecMap website and suggested key areas for improvement to facilitate usability and perceived usefulness. Recommendations included a more user-friendly home page for lay audiences (e.g. separate public-facing user-interface), improving the search/filter options, quicker navigation, clearer titles, more family-friendly graphics and improving mobile-friendly access. Several approaches and strategies to disseminate the RecMap website were also expressed, including a mix of traditional and non-traditional methods (e.g. handouts, social media) in credible and high traffic locations that parents frequent often.

Conclusions:

Overall, parents liked the concept of the RecMap website, but had some suggestions to improve its usability especially related to language, navigation and website interface. These findings can be used to improve the RecMap website for parents and offers insight for the development and dissemination of effective web-based health information tools and resources for the general public.