Quality of anaesthesia-related information accessed via Internet searches

Caron, S.; Berton, J.; Beydon, L.

doi:10.1093/bja/aem117

Cited by 21 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 19 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…The majority of them used conventional search engines. It is very likely that the nature and quality of the information found varied greatly [16, 17, 23]. It remains unclear how involved the government, health organizations and hospitals ideally should be in order to improve patient information and satisfaction.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It may feature highly technical language, as was for example recently shown in the field of regional anaesthesia [15], and the quality, accuracy, and safety of some health information available in the internet can even be suspect [3, 8, 16–18]. Further, there are inconsistent reports about availability and usability of internet based information for special groups of patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Factors influencing the level of patients using the internet to gather information before anaesthesia: a single-centre survey of 815 patients in Switzerland

2017

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BackgroundAim of this study was to identify factors associated with patients using the internet to find information about their upcoming surgery in general, and more specifically about anaesthesia.MethodsWith Ethics committee approval, 1000 consecutive patients seen before elective surgery in the anaesthesia preoperative clinic of a Swiss Level 2 hospital were asked to complete a questionnaire. Primary outcome were patients using the internet to gather any medical information related to their upcoming hospital stay, secondary outcome patients using the internet to gather information regarding the upcoming anaesthesia. Multiple regression was performed to identify independent factors associated with internet use.ResultsEighty-two percent of the patients (n = 815) participated. 97% of those were ASA physical status 1 or 2; 83% (n = 676) had experience with previous anaesthetics, 86% (n = 700) reported to use the internet in general. Overall, about one-third of the participants used the internet to learn more about their medical condition, 26% regarding their upcoming surgical procedure. Only 7% (n = 55) obtained information about the anaesthetic. In multivariate analyses, factors associated with internet use were generally doing so, and planned moderate compared to minor surgery; not using the internet was associated with previous anaesthetic experience. Of those who did not use the Internet to learn about their anaesthetic, 34% indicated that they would have visited a trusted website.ConclusionOnly few patients used the internet to obtain information about their upcoming procedure and the anaesthetic part played an even smaller role. However, many patients would have appreciated guidance to find trustworthy internet sites.Trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00005434; date of registration: 27th December 2013); date of enrolment of first patient: 1st August 2013; study retrospectively registered.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors influencing the level of patients using the internet to gather information before anaesthesia: a single-centre survey of 815 patients in Switzerland

2017

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“…(1,9,10,20,32,34,35) 23 (5,6,7,8,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,21,22,23,24,25,26,29,30,36,37,39) The amount of information available on the Internet is increasing, and thus, concern has been expressed about the quality of this information. Despite this concern, only a handful of studies have recently assessed the quality of health-related information on different topics, such as epilepsy (34), anaesthesia (19,35), breast cancer (23,36), menopause (37), asthma (38), osteoporosis (33), chronic pain (19), scoliosis (39), urology (14,22), anxiety disorders (18) and cystic fibrosis (21). Among these studies, only one was found in the area of dental health describing dental patients' use of the Internet, but this study did not assess the quality of the dental health information (12).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surfing for mouth guards: assessing quality of online information

Magunacelaya¹,

Glendor

2011

Dental Traumatology

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This study shows that there is a high amount of information about mouth guards on the Internet but that the quality of this information varies. It should be the responsibility of health care professionals to suggest and provide reliable Internet URL addresses to patients. In addition, an appropriate search terminology and search strategy should be made available to persons who want to search beyond the recommended sites.

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“…Almost half of the sites identified with the English (UK and US) search terms contained relevant information, and half of the relevant sites were rated as good or very good (4–5 DISCERN stars). Good search results were recently reported also by Caron and co‐workers, who looked for information about ‘epidural analgesia risk’ [25]. In contrast, good quality was hard to find about a less common issue, paediatric Neuro‐oncology [12].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient information about general anaesthesia on the internet

Tallgren

Bäcklund

2009

Anaesthesia

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SummaryThe internet is a frequently consulted source of health information. Using the Google search engine, we searched for patient information about general anaesthesia on the world wide web, using four synonyms of the term in four languages and analysing the top 20 results. Of the 320 search results, 104 (32%) contained relevant information: 36 (45%) with the English (UK); 39 (49%) with the English (US); 13 (16%) with the Swedish; and 16 (20%) with the Finnish search terms (p < 0.001). 'Good' websites, defined as those with a DISCERN rating of 4-5 stars, were found in all languages: 12 with the English (UK); 11 with the English (US); two with the Swedish; and one with the Finnish search terms (p = 0.012). Few good websites showed a reading grade level of £ 8 that is recommended for consumer health information. Of the good quality sites, 18 ⁄ 22 (82%) remained within the top 20, three months later. General anaesthesia is an invasive procedure connected with significant health risks, although they are rare. Most patients prefer to be informed by their anaesthetist face to face, but the opportunity to look for confirmation in writing is also valued [1][2][3]. Nowadays, the internet is an easily available source of all kinds of information. It is also consulted frequently for health-related issues [4][5][6].Usually consumers look for online medical information on their own initiative. Most type a simple search term in a general search engine, then visit some of the first websites on the list, and try again with another search term, if necessary [5][6][7][8]. Most searches are conducted in the native language [9]. However, medical information is often found difficult to read by adults without academic education [10], and because the internet allows anyone to publish medical information, whether evidence-based or anecdotal, it can serve as a source of misinformation [11,12]. Numerous tools have been developed to help evaluate health-related websites, including quality rating educational tools, accreditation and quality labels, and filters [13]. However, it is not known which instruments, if any, are simple enough to be practical in everyday use [14,15], and they are rarely utilised by consumers [6,13,15]. The aim of this study was to assess if good information about general anaesthesia is easily available for patients on the internet.

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Quality of anaesthesia-related information accessed via Internet searches

Cited by 21 publications

References 19 publications

Factors influencing the level of patients using the internet to gather information before anaesthesia: a single-centre survey of 815 patients in Switzerland

Factors influencing the level of patients using the internet to gather information before anaesthesia: a single-centre survey of 815 patients in Switzerland

Surfing for mouth guards: assessing quality of online information

Patient information about general anaesthesia on the internet

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