BACKGROUND
The incidence of liver cancer is increasing in China, which poses a serious threat to human health. WeChat, as one of the primary platforms for Chinese people to obtain health information, plays an important role in providing a large amount of medical information. However, no one has evaluated the quality of articles about liver cancer on WeChat. This work evaluates the quality of health information on liver cancer in WeChat platform, to benefit the patients while making treatment decisions and provide suggestions on publishing high-quality treatment health information.
OBJECTIVE
Our study aimed to assess the quality of the information in articles which possess great views on WeChat associated with liver cancer.
METHODS
In September 2023, with “liver cancer” as keywords, searches were implemented on the WeChat according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. And the DISCERN instrument (DISCERN) was applied to perform the assessment.
RESULTS
A total of 95 articles with more than 100,000 views were included and analyzed. Commercial organizations uploaded the largest percentage of articles, accounting for 40% (38), and lifestyle intervention was mentioned most among the articles, accounting for 48% (46). The assessment based on the DISCERN instrument reported a mean score of 26.88 (SD 44.28). 77.7% (73) of the articles were considered to have a very poor quality, while 21.2 % (21) of them were considered to be of poor quality and only 1.1% (1) of them were fair. There were no articles evaluated as being of good or excellent quality. The quality of articles with references is better than articles without references (P <.001). However, there were no significant differences in the quality of articles from different uploading sources and information categories. Also, the presence of pictures, videos, and advertisements did not seem to have a significant effect on article quality.
CONCLUSIONS
The quality of articles on health information about liver cancer that are widely read on WeChat is poor while article authors should focus more on improving the quality of information. The reliability of articles can be improved by providing more details about treatment options, or by citing professional guidelines or references, thus helping people make the best decision when retrieving health information.