EVALUATION OF PATIENT‐ORIENTATED INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET FOR COMMMON GASTROENTEROLOGICAL CONDITIONS

• Published in: Journal of gastroenterology and hepatology Vol. 16; no. s1; p. 40
• Main Authors: Adams, Leon, Zimmerman, Matt
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Pty 01.12.2001
• ISSN: 0815-9319; 1440-1746
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1746.2001.ca01-40.x

Objective 1 To characterise the type and quality of patient‐orientated internet information for four common gastrointestinal conditions. 2 To compare information found by generic and medical search engines. 3 To compare information found by two different search strategies. Methods  Four search phrases; ‘colon cancer’, ‘oesophageal reflux’, ‘gallstones’ and ‘inflammatory bowel disease’, were each entered into two generic and two medical search engines. Patient‐orientated sites in the first 20 web addresses were evaluated according to ownership, authorship, referencing, advertising, disclaimer, editorial board and currency. The comprehensiveness of each site was evaluated by a content score. The process was repeated with the addition of ‘patient information’ to each search phrase. Results  Of the 346 sites listed, 117 (33.8%) were patient orientated and accessible. Of these, medical search engines identified only 12 of 117 (10%). The majority had disclaimers (72%) and were current (79%). A small proportion were authored (25%), referenced (24%) or had an editorial board (15%). Government sites had the highest average content score. Sites from health search engines were less likely to be authored (P < 0.01), more likely to have government (P < 0.05) or patient self help group ownership (P < 0.01) and had significantly higher average content scores (P < 0.01). The addition of the term ‘patient information’ yielded sites with similar characteristics and content scores but did not increase the pick‐up rate. Conclusion  The pick up rate of search engines for gastrointestinal patient information is poor. Patients should be directed towards medical search engines and government owned web sites.