This study investigates, within the current health care situation, the
interrelationship of the user, resources and tool in the design of a prototype
WELLNESS database-driven web site. A shift has taken place in health care,
in which the base of conventional medicine has broadened to integrate other
systems, practices and worldviews. These include complementary and
alternative medicine, health promotion, disease prevention and wellness.
Emphasis is placed on the need to take personal responsibility for one's own
health and wellness. The global burden of chronic disease, reaching
epidemic proportions, is increasingly linked to risk factors resulting from
personal lifestyle choices. The growing evidence of the user's need to make
personal, informed, lifestyle choices and their reliance on the Web for health
information, required investigation. WELLNESS, a specific orientation to
health and wellness, formed the framework within which the user and
resources were defined and the tool designed. The user was profiled as the
WELLNESS health information seeker, hereby contributing significantly to an
understanding of the user in this new context. The user profile informed the
establishment of resource selection criteria and tool design. The identification
of WELLNESS content selection criteria, within a five-dimensional model, was
required to ensure quality, relevant and credible resources. The tool is
comprised of the WELLNESS thesaurus and WELLNESS database-driven
web site. The WELLNESS thesaurus was constructed based on a
combination of relevant thesauri. It will be used as an indexing tool. An
investigation of existing health information web sites highlighted the
importance of designing a specific WELLNESS database-driven web site. A
database host was identified against which the original study's conceptual
schema was assessed. A low-fidelity prototype web site was designed as the
interface between the WELLNESS health information seeker and the
database of WELLNESS health information resources. This study has
epidemiological, philosophical, epistemological, sociological and
psychological relevance. The provision of access to WELLNESS health
information resources, made available in the WELLNESS database-driven
web site, for personal, informed lifestyle choice by the WELLNESS health information seeker could potentially contribute to the reduction of the global
burden of chronic disease. / Information Science / D.Litt. et Phil. (Information Science)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/2018 |
| Date | 30 June 2008 |
| Creators | Cottrell, Genevieve Lee |
| Contributors | Meyer, H. W. J., Cloete, Linda Maria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xvii, 500 leaves) |
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