State health department web sites: Rich resources for consumer health information

State health departments are a potential source of consumer health information. To assess the types and access points of consumer health information on state health department Web sites, the author visited state public health sites to document the accessibility, subject matter, language, and format of selected materials for consumers. The ease of identifying consumer-oriented materials varied greatly among sites. The majority of state Web sites included consumer information on immunization (96%), environmental health (92%), smoking/tobacco control (84%), emergency preparedness (82%), diabetes (80%), HIV/AIDS (75%), sexually transmitted diseases (73%), tuberculosis (67%), and newborn screening (63%), in addition to a wealth of other important health topics. Eighty-two percent of sites provided information in at least one language other than English. All sites had links to other health sites. Formats of hosted materials include brochures, fact sheets, and au-diovisuals. State public health department Web sites are a rich, but somewhat complicated, resource of geographically specific and community-relevant health information.