Assessment of the quality and variability of health information on chronic pain websites using the DISCERN instrument

Kaicker, Jatin; Debono, Victoria Borg; Dang, Wilfred; Buckley, Norman; Thabane, Lehana

doi:10.1186/1741-7015-8-59

Cited by 174 publications

(172 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…Seven of the 14 sources failed to mention any associated risks of the options reported. Previous work assessing the online health information for other conditions has produced similar findings [34,35].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Assessing Internet Based Information Used to Aid Patient Decision Making in Surgery for Perianal Crohn's Fistula

Marshall

Baker

Lee

et al. 2017

International Journal of Surgery

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Background Decision-making in perianal Crohn's fistula (pCD) is preference sensitive. Patients use the internet to access healthcare information. The aim of this study was to assess the online information and patient decision aids relating to surgery for pCD. Methods A search of Google TM and the Decision Aids Library Inventory (DALI) was performed using a predefined search strategy. Patient-focussed sources providing information about pCD surgery were included in the analysis. Written health information was assessed using the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) and DISCERN criteria. The readability of the source content was assessed using the Flesch-Kincaid score. Results Of the 201 sources found, 187 were excluded, leaving 14 sources for analysis. Three sources were dedicated to pCD, and six sources mentioned pCD-specific outcomes. The most common surgical intervention reported was seton insertion (n = 13). The least common surgical intervention reported was proctectomy (n = 1). The mean IPDAS and DISCERN scores were 4.43 ± 1.65 out of 12 (range = 2-8) and 2.93 ± 0.73 out of 5 (range = 1-5), respectively. The mean reading ease was US college standard. Conclusions We found no patient decision aids relating to surgery for pCD. The online sources relating to surgery for pCD are few, and their quality is poor, as seen in the low IPDAS and DISCERN scores. Less than half of the sources mentioned pCD-specific outcomes, and three sources were solely dedicated to providing information on pCD. Healthcare professionals should look to create a patient tool to assist decision-making in pCD.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Assessing Internet Based Information Used to Aid Patient Decision Making in Surgery for Perianal Crohn's Fistula

Marshall

Baker

Lee

et al. 2017

International Journal of Surgery

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“…This can contribute to the presentation of inaccurate or incomplete information on health-related topics. 29,[31][32][33] This study aimed to assess the quality and completeness of the information on caesarean section available in web pages directed at Brazilian laypersons. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Googling caesarean section: a survey on the quality of the information available on the Internet

Fioretti

Reiter

Betrán

et al. 2014

BJOG: Int J Obstet Gy

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Objective To examine the quality and completeness of information on caesarean section in web pages used by laypersons in Brazil, a country with very high rates of caesarean delivery.Design Cross-sectional study.Setting Brazil.Sample A total of 176 Internet websites.Methods The term 'caesarean delivery' and 25 synonyms were entered into the most popular search engines in Brazil. The first three pages of hits were downloaded and assessed by two independent investigators using the DISCERN instrument and a content checklist.Main outcome measures Quality and completeness of information on caesarean section.Results A total of 3900 web pages were retrieved and 176 fulfilled the selection criteria. The overall average DISCERN score was 43.6 (AE8.9 SD), of a maximum score of 75; 30% of the pages were of poor or very poor quality and 47% were of moderate quality. Most pages scored low, especially in questions related to reliability of the information. The most frequently covered topics were: indications for caesarean section (80% of websites), which did not reflect clinical practice; short-term maternal risks (80%); and potential benefits of caesarean section (56%), including maternal and doctor convenience. Less than half of the websites mentioned perinatal risks and less than one-third mentioned long-term maternal risks associated with caesarean section, such as uterine rupture (17%) or placenta praevia/accreta (12%) in future pregnancies.Conclusions The quality and completeness of web-based resources in Portuguese about caesarean section were poor to moderate. Pending improvement of these resources, obstetricians should warn pregnant women about these facts and encourage them to discuss what they have read on the Internet about caesarean section.Keywords Caesarean section, doctor-patient relationships, health literacy, Internet, patient education, prenatal education.Tweetable abstract The quality and completeness of information about caesareans is poor in 176 websites used by Brazilians.Keywords Caesarean section, doctor-patient relationships, health literacy, Internet, patient education, prenatal education. IntroductionIn 1985, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that there were no justifications for caesarean section rates higher than 10-15% anywhere in the world, 1 and yet rates are steadily increasing worldwide.2 Brazil has been the world champion of delivery by caesarean section since the early 1990s, 3 and numbers continue to rise. In 2010 over 50% of all deliveries in Brazil were by caesarean section, representing a 20% increase in just 4 years. 4,5 In the private sector, caesarean section rates are over 80%. 6,7 Reasons for increasing caesarean section rates are under investigation. Several contributing factors from both the health provider and user sides have been identified, including fear of labour pain, misconceptions about vaginal delivery, previous traumatic births, social values, personal preferences, fear of litigation, economic reasons, and convenience for both patients and doctors. [8][9][10][...

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“…Summarization can help doctors to obtain relevant information about a particular disease or information from the patient records (Becher et al, 2002). It will also be beneficial to patients or users whom turn online to find information pertinent to their health problems (Kaicker et al, 2010). Furthermore, there are extensive resources that provide access to medical information and medical-related databases.…”

Section: Medical Summarizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review on Automatic Text Summarization Approaches

Kumar¹,

Goh²,

Basiron³

et al. 2016

Journal of Computer Science

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It has been more than 50 years since the initial investigation on automatic text summarization was started. Various techniques have been successfully used to extract the important contents from text document to represent document summary. In this study, we review some of the studies that have been conducted in this still-developing research area. It covers the basics of text summarization, the types of summarization, the methods that have been used and some areas in which text summarization has been applied. Furthermore, this paper also reviews the significant efforts which have been put in studies concerning sentence extraction, domain specific summarization and multi document summarization and provides the theoretical explanation and the fundamental concepts related to it. In addition, the advantages and limitations concerning the approaches commonly used for text summarization are also highlighted in this study.

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Assessment of the quality and variability of health information on chronic pain websites using the DISCERN instrument

Cited by 174 publications

References 23 publications

Assessing Internet Based Information Used to Aid Patient Decision Making in Surgery for Perianal Crohn's Fistula

Assessing Internet Based Information Used to Aid Patient Decision Making in Surgery for Perianal Crohn's Fistula

Googling caesarean section: a survey on the quality of the information available on the Internet

A Review on Automatic Text Summarization Approaches

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