Are health websites credible enough for elderly self-education in the most prevalent elderly diseases?

Abstract

Background The Elderly and their caregivers need credible health information to manage elderly chronic diseases and help them to be involved in health decision making. In this regard, health websites are considered as a potential source of information for elderlies as well as their caregivers. Nevertheless, the credibility of these websites has not been identified yet. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the credibility of the health websites on the most prevalent chronic diseases of the elderly. Methods The terms “Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”, “Alzheimer's”, “Ischemic heart disease”, and “Stroke” were searched using the three popular search engines. A total of 216 unique websites were eligible for evaluation. The study was carried out using the HONcode of conduct. The chi-square test was carried out to determine the difference between conforming and nonconforming websites with HONcode principles and website categories. Results The findings showed that half of the evaluated websites had fully considered the HONcode principles. Furthermore, there was a significant difference between websites category and compliance with HONcode principles (p value < .05). Conclusion Regarding the poor credibility of most prevalent elderly diseases’ websites, the potential online health information users should be aware of the low credibility of such websites, which may seriously threaten their health. Furthermore, educating the elderly and their caregivers to evaluate the credibility of websites by the use of popular tools such as HONcode of conducts before utilizing their information seems to be necessary.

Using medical university websites for health education about COVID-19; an effective solution for public education during a pandemic

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“…In a study by Gill et al (2013), showed that social media technologies and websites have the potential to deliver safe and effective health education[ 20 ]. In a study by Valizadeh-Haghi et al (2021), showed that websites can be used for health education to prevent diseases, but their scientific content needs to be verified and validated[ 21 ]. The Ministry of Health must use all the information facilities, such as the website of the universities of medical sciences, to inform and publish the correct news about coronavirus among people.…”

Reasons behind the Delayed Diagnosis of Testicular Cancer: A Retrospective Analysis

“…Importantly, patients from the delayed diagnosis group significantly more often than their timely diagnosis counterparts mentioned the Internet as a primary source of information about testicular cancer. This finding points to a growing problem of seeking medical information from unverified Internet resources instead of referring to a specialist [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. This seems to be particularly widespread in the case of medical problems related to sexual health.…”

“…A few previous studies demonstrated that the knowledge of the early symptoms of testicular cancer among males at risk is suboptimal [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ], with the practice of testicular self-examination, a basic screening test, not being as common as recommended [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. However, still little is known about the causes of diagnostic delay in men with testicular malignancies.…”

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