Public health organizations that use the Internet to convey information can easily fall into the trap of providing on their sites as much information as possible for potential users. This kitchen sink approach may seem attractive at first glance. After all, given the potential worldwide size of the Internet audience, somebody somewhere might find any individual piece of information useful. This approach is highly democratic, fits well within American cultural values and freedom of choice, and has the added advantage of reducing the possibility of criticism from management or colleagues because information they desire is not available on a site. Perhaps most importantly, it means avoiding having to decide, or prioritize, what information to include or exclude on a Web site.
Simply providing more and more health information may not lead to increased information use or desired public health improvements. A good example is the effort to make information about health care performance by hospitals, health plans, and individual providers widely available to the public. The rationale for publicizing health care quality information, or report cards, was a belief that doing so would facilitate informed choice by consumers and stimulate improvements in the quality of health care. Despite widespread availability of this information, there is little evidence that health care consumers have sought such information on Web sites or that this information has influenced their health care decisions. The lesson here is that providers of health care information need to know their audiences before creating and distributing information.
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