Effects of language and terminology of query suggestions on medical accuracy considering different user characteristics

Searching for health information is one of the most popular activities on the web. In this domain, users often misspell or lack knowledge of the proper medical terms to use in queries. To overcome these difficulties and attempt to retrieve higher-quality content, we developed a query suggestion system that provides alternative queries combining the Portuguese or English language with lay or medico-scientific terminology. Here we evaluate this system’s impact on the medical accuracy of the knowledge acquired during the search. Evaluation shows that simply providing these suggestions contributes to reduce the quantity of incorrect content. This indicates that even when suggestions are not clicked, they are useful either for subsequent queries’ formulation or for interpreting search results. Clicking on suggestions, regardless of type, leads to answers with more correct content. An analysis by type of suggestion and user characteristics showed that the benefits of certain languages and terminologies are more perceptible in users with certain levels of English proficiency and health literacy. This suggests a personalization of this suggestion system toward these characteristics. Overall, the effect of language is more preponderant than the effect of terminology. Clicks on English suggestions are clearly preferable to clicks on Portuguese ones.Thanks to Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia for partially funding this work under the grant SFRH/BD/40982/2007 to Carla Teixeira Lopes, UID/DTP/04750/2013 to the Epidemiology Research Unit (EPIUnit) and the project UID/EEA/50014/2013 to the INESC TEC. The authors also thank Andreia Ribeirinho Soares, MD, for contributions on the definition of the criteria used to assess medical accuracy