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The Internet is increasingly becoming a popular avenue for people to seek and browse health articles, which has indeed become a daily habit for some (Mun et al., 2013; Sbaffi & Rowley, 2017). Web-based health information plays a vital role in helping people equip themselves with high-quality health-related knowledge and attitude to make better healthcare decisions (Kitchens et al., 2014; Peng et al., 2020). A recent study has shown that more than 80% of readers search online health articles for health purposes (CBS, 2021; Zhao et al., 2020). Besides, in the post-COVID-19 era, people frequently need to make sense of relevant knowledge and learn preventive measures or healthcare to overcome uncertainties from health conditions that they or their families may face (CBS, 2021; Shiau et al., 2021). However, a deep concern arises when people encounter incorrect or unverified healthcare information, which can adversely affect their health beliefs and consequences (Kitchens et al., 2014; Mun et al., 2013). People should be guided to make better healthcare decisions with high-quality information during emergencies and pandemics (Peng et al., 2020; Shiau et al., 2021; Xiao et al., 2014). The motivations for finding online health information differ from person to person. These reasons include diagnosing oneself, reducing health-concern uncertainty, or learning new knowledge (Fox & Duggan, 2013). Online health information sometimes helps reduce anxiety and general uncertainty (Powell et al., 2011). Therefore, the quality and credibility of web-based health information are crucial factors affecting people’s health-related knowledge and awareness.
Online readers receive or obtain health information sources from diverse organizations and individuals. To reduce the risk of misjudgment of information, readers can seek multiple sources of information to cross-validate the quality and credibility (Ahn & Kahlor, 2020; Hargittai et al., 2010; Mirbabaie et al., 2021). Information from multiple sources is more persuasive than that from a single source, but processing multiple information sources also requires more effort (Harkins & Petty, 1981; Petty & Wegener, 2010). Besides, differences in information quality, accuracy, and reliability can be huge across the overwhelming amount of health information (Kitchens et al., 2014; Sbaffi & Rowley, 2017). Health information searched online is not all equally valid and helpful (Mun et al., 2013). Past studies have shown that misinformation spreads on the Internet often co-exists with high-quality health information (Eysenbach & Köhler, 2002; Vosoughi et al., 2018). In addition, readers with low health literacy face more obstacles in determining the reliability of health information (Diviani et al., 2015; Sbaffi & Rowley, 2017; Wong & Cheung, 2019). More seriously, inaccurate, incomplete, misinformed, or outdated information related to specific medical conditions, symptoms, disease treatment, and drug information can harm readers if they act upon it, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic (Liu & Zuo, 2021; Shiau et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2022). When readers seek health information, the verification that comes with the possibility of multiple-sources assessment can be critical. However, a knowledge gap exists in the literature: although information quality and credibility have been extensively researched, establishing the value of reliably integrating health content from multiple sources and websites has not. This study investigates critical yet unanswered questions: 1. How can online readers seek multiple sources of health-related information more effectively to cross-validate quality and credibility? 2. How can information seekers be facilitated to more conveniently and intuitively gather multiple information sources as well as evaluate the information quality and credibility among numerous online healthcare websites?