Evaluating the quality of Internet health resources in pediatric urology

Fast, Angela M.; Deibert, Christopher M.; Hruby, Gregory W.; Glassberg, Kenneth I.

doi:10.1016/j.jpurol.2012.01.004

Cited by 69 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…For surgery, between 36 and 51 % percent of patients used the Internet to research particular hospitals or surgeons [77,78]. Nevertheless, online information on surgeries has been deemed by experts to be quite variable and often of questionable quality [79][80][81][82][83].…”

Section: The Internetmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Systematic Review of the Factors that Patients Use to Choose their Surgeon

et al. 2015

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Section: The Internetmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Systematic Review of the Factors that Patients Use to Choose their Surgeon

et al. 2015

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“…36,37 This instrument has also been tested for use in assessing health information available on the Internet. 38 In this study, 'treatment choices' were caesarean section versus vaginal delivery.…”

Section: Data Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For further analyses, we grouped the overall DISCERN scores into five categories: very poor (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26), poor (27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38), moderate (39-50), good (51-62), and excellent (63-75). 32 Completeness was assessed by calculating the proportion of key elements, defined a priori, covered by each website.…”

Section: Scoring Of Quality and Completeness Of Information Presentedmentioning

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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“…Given that vertebroplasty is such a hotly contested medical therapy [2-4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 16, 18, 20-22, 32, 33, 38, 39], the provision of well-balanced information for patient education is particularly significant for patients considering a vertebroplasty. Additionally, although some prior studies [5,9,14,15,37,40] have evaluated the effects of site certification and others have investigated the effect of academic authorship [10,18,26,29,34], two elements affecting the trends of Internet information, these studies [5,9,10,14,15,28,29,34,37,40] to date have used measurements of quality that are based primarily on subjective criteria or information accuracy rather than information completeness, an important distinction which needs to be addressed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Internet Information on Vertebroplasty be a Reliable Means of Patient Self-education?

Sullivan

Ahn

2014

Clinical Orthopaedics &Amp; Related Research

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Background Studies of the quality and accuracy of health and medical information available on the Internet have shown that many sources provide inadequate information. However, to our knowledge, there are no published studies analyzing the quality of information available online regarding vertebroplasty. Because this has been a highvolume procedure with highly debated efficacy, it is critical that patients receive complete, accurate, and well-balanced information before deciding a treatment course. Additionally, few studies have evaluated the merit of academic site authorship or site certification on information quality, but some studies have used measurements of quality that are based primarily on subjective criteria or information accuracy rather than information completeness. Questions/purposes The purposes of our study were (1) to evaluate and analyze the information on vertebroplasty available to the general public through the Internet; (2) to see if sites sponsored by academic institutions offered a higher quality of information; and (3) to determine whether quality of information varied according to site approval by a certification body. Methods Three search engines were used to identify 105 web sites (35 per engine) offering information regarding vertebroplasty. Sites were evaluated for authorship/sponsorship, content, and references cited. Information quality was rated as ''excellent,'' ''high,'' ''moderate,'' ''low,'' or ''unacceptable.'' Sites also were evaluated for contact information to set up an appointment. Data were analyzed as a complete set, then compared between authorship types, and finally evaluated by certification status. Academic sites were compared with other authorship groups and certified sites were compared with noncertified sites using Student's t-test. Results Appropriate indications were referenced in 74% of sites, whereas only 45% discussed a contraindication to the procedure. Benefits were expressed by 100% of sites, but risks were outlined in only 53% (p \ 0.001). Ninety-nine percent of sites provided step-by-step descriptions of the procedure, and 44% of sites also included images. Alternative treatments were mentioned by 51% of sites. Twenty-seven percent of sites referenced peer-reviewed literature, 41% offered experiential or noncited data based on American populations, and 7% offered analogous data from international populations. Thirty percent of sites provided contact information for patient appointment scheduling. Seven percent of sites were classified as excellent quality, 6% as high quality, 11% as moderate quality, 19% as poor quality, and 57% as unacceptable. Sixteen percent of sites were sponsored by academic institutions, 62% by private groups, 8% by biomedical device companies, and 14% were sponsored otherwise. Academic sites reported fewer risks of the procedure than private sites or other sites (p = 0.05 and p = 0.04), but reported more risks Each author certifies that he or she, or a member of his or her immediate family, has no funding or commercial a...

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Evaluating the quality of Internet health resources in pediatric urology

Cited by 69 publications

References 18 publications

A Systematic Review of the Factors that Patients Use to Choose their Surgeon

A Systematic Review of the Factors that Patients Use to Choose their Surgeon

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

Can Internet Information on Vertebroplasty be a Reliable Means of Patient Self-education?

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