Patient Information Websites About Medically Induced Second-Trimester Abortions: A Descriptive Study of Quality, Suitability, and Issues

Abstract

BackgroundPatients undergoing medically induced second-trimester abortions feel insufficiently informed and use the Web for supplemental information. However, it is still unclear how people who have experience with pregnancy termination appraise the quality of patient information websites about medically induced second-trimester abortions, whether they consider the websites suitable for patients, and what issues they experience with the websites.ObjectiveOur objective was to investigate the quality of, suitability of, and issues with patient information websites about medically induced second-trimester abortions and potential differences between websites affiliated with the health care system and private organizations.MethodsWe set out to answer the objective by using 4 laypeople who had experience with pregnancy termination as quality assessors. The first 50 hits of 26 systematic searches were screened (N=1300 hits) using search terms reported by the assessors. Of these hits, 48% (628/1300) were irrelevant and 51% (667/1300) led to websites about medically induced second-trimester abortions. After correcting for duplicate hits, 42 patient information websites were included, 18 of which were affiliated with the health care system and 24 with private organizations. The 4 assessors systematically assessed the websites with the DISCERN instrument (total score range 16-80), the Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) tool (total score range 0-100), as well as questions concerning website suitability and perceived issues.ResultsThe interrater reliability was 0.8 for DISCERN and EQIP, indicating substantial agreement between the assessors. The total mean score was 36 for DISCERN and 40 for EQIP, indicating poor overall quality. Websites from the health care system had greater total EQIP (45 vs 37, P>.05) and reliability scores (22 vs 20, P>.05). Only 1 website was recommended by all assessors and 57% (24/42) were rated as very unsuitable by at least one assessor. The most reported issues with the websites involved lack of information (76%, 32/42), and poor design (36%, 15/42).ConclusionsThe high number of irrelevant hits and poor quality of patient information websites are considerable issues that must be addressed and considered when consulting patients awaiting medically induced second-trimester abortions. In clinical encounters, health professionals should initiate discussions concerning websites about medically induced second-trimester abortions and inform patients about the issues and quality deficits associated with these websites.

Quality of web pages about second‐trimester medical abortion: A cross‐sectional study of readability, comprehensiveness, and transparency

“…Moreover, the transparency was poor and very few adhered to the investigated quality benchmarks concerning transparency. These findings call attention to the risk of encountering unreliable and biased information, which is in line with previous research about abortion‐related information on the Web (Bryant et al, ; Carlsson & Axelsson, ; Rowlands, ). Health professionals need to acknowledge the issues related to quality of web‐based information and discuss this when consulting patients who request medical abortion.…”

“…The literature recommends that search terms chosen by researchers should correspond to those used by laypersons (Rew et al, ). Consequently, we used terms previously reported by laypersons with experience of medical abortion (Carlsson & Axelsson, ). The following five Swedish search terms were used: “ sen abort ” (late abortion ’), “ avbrytande vecka 20 ” (“ termination week 20 ”), “ att klara av en sen abort ” (“ to manage a late abortion ”), ‘ hur går en sen abort till ’ (“ how is a late abortion performed ”), and “ avslutande ” (“ termination ”).…”

Abortion-related worries, fears and preparedness: a Swedish Web-based exploratory and retrospective qualitative study

“…This illustrates the risk of contact with poor quality, biased information, described by some respondents. Descriptive studies have reported various issues related to the quality of websites in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology [33][34][35]. Moreover, widespread dissemination of misinformation about induced abortions on the Web has been reported [36], echoing respondents' descriptions.…”

Quality of Patient Information Websites About Congenital Heart Defects: Mixed-Methods Study of Perspectives Among Individuals With Experience of a Prenatal Diagnosis

“…It is of great concern that patients experience information about pregnancy termination as insufficient and high-blown, both from health professionals and from Web-based sources [ 17 , 50 ]. Moreover, previous studies indicate that websites about induced abortions contain inaccurate, misleading [ 53 , 54 ], unsuitable, and low-quality information [ 55 ], calling attention to the need for patients to cautiously use and interpret Web-based information about these topics. In light of our findings, health professionals must consider these aspects when consulting individuals who decide on pregnancy termination and must make efforts to ensure that patients come into contact with sufficient and relevant high-quality Web-based information.…”