Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2008 , Vol 11, Issue 4
WEB SITE EVALUATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL GERIATRICS ORGANIZATIONS OVER THE MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GERONTOLOGY AND GERIATRICS (IAGG)
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Halk Sağlığı Anabilim Dalı ANKARA Introduction: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the web-sites of members of International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (IAGG) in terms of geriatrics and gerontological issues.

Materials and Method: Seventy one member associations' web sites were included in this cross-sectional study. SPSS 15.0 was used for data entry and analysis.

Results: Almost half of the associations (50.7%) was located in Europe. The major study areas of the associations were found as gerontology (47.9%), geriatrics (7.0%), and gerontology and geriatrics (45.1%). Forty eight associations' web sites were accessible (67.6%). Eleven associations out of 48 had updating process. Only 22 web sites had link in English and this limited the evaluation of the other web sites' content. The other activities such as community information, community based research, etc was also found to be improved. The results of this study stated that only two out of three associations had websites. Besides, English link of these websites were also lacking and this might limit the international advocacy in geriatrics and gerontology sciences.

Conclusion: The variety in the web site contents highlighted the requirement of an international guideline for the webs ites which will contribute to the standardization of the member associations' collaborative work via their web sites. Keywords : Association, Geriatrics, Gerontology, IAGG, Website