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Doctoral defence, Muzawir Arief, MSc, 10 Dec 2021: Toward accessible websites to support health information among older people

The doctoral dissertation in the Health and Human Services Informatics will be examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies at Kuopio Campus and online.

What is the topic of your doctoral research, Muzawir Arief?

Topic of my doctoral dissertation is quality and accessibility of health information for older people. The issue is important because older people with their declined health conditions need more awareness about their health and a website as one alternative source to provide information should be accessible for older people in particular.

This study shows the association that is beginning from the web accessibility policy as the first step to improve web accessibility that should be implemented in the websites. Effective web accessibility can be seen from equal accessibility for any people from any demographic background in web-based health information.

What are the key findings or observations of your doctoral research?

The key findings of the study are: first, there are still older people who cannot access or be inactive internet users especially for people with very old age and lower educations or people who have worked in low-level jobs; second, the quality and accessibility of websites health information for older people are still low quality and lack accessibility, and; third, the policy of website accessibility is not effectively implemented which shows in low accessibility of websites of health information.

How can the results of your doctoral research be utilised in practice?

In improving the websites, web accessibility standards should meet older people's needs with various demographic backgrounds. The implementation of the policy should be focused initially on basic accessibility criteria. The policy of web accessibility should be imposed not only for the government but also for other information agencies. Promoting web accessibility should be intensified through funding allocation and regular monitoring of web accessibility should be performed. In technical aspect: the role of search engines in filtering good quality and accessibility websites should be improved through more integrated quality and accessibility evaluation features.

What are the key research methods and materials used in your doctoral research?

This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods, the data collection was collected from questionnaires and health information websites.

 

The doctoral defence of Muzawir Arief, MSc, entitled Toward accessible websites to support health information among older people, will be examined at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies on 10 December at noon in Kuopio Campus, Mediteknia, MD100. The Opponent will be Professor Reima Suomi, University of Turku, and the Custos will be Professor Kaija Saranto, University of Eastern Finland. Language of the public defence is English. Public examination will be streamed live.

For further information, please contact:

Muzawir Arief, muzawir.arief@uef.fi