Comparison of Consumer Information on the Internet to the Current Evidence Base for Minimally Invasive Parathyroidectomy

• Published in: World journal of surgery Vol. 34; no. 6; pp. 1304 - 1311
• Main Authors: McLean, Timothy, Delbridge, Leigh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01.06.2010; Springer‐Verlag; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abdominal Surgery; Bilateral Neck Exploration; Biological and medical sciences; Cardiac Surgery; Consumer Health Information; False Claim; General aspects; General Surgery; Humans; Internet; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Minimally Invasive Parathyroidectomy; Miscellaneous; Parathyroid Adenoma; Parathyroid Surgery; Parathyroidectomy; Prospective Studies; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Surgery; Surgery (general aspects). Transplantations, organ and tissue grafts. Graft diseases; Surgery of endocrine glands; Thoracic Surgery; Vascular Surgery; Parathyroid Adenoma; Parathyroid Surgery; Minimally Invasive Parathyroidectomy; False Claim; Bilateral Neck Exploration; Treatment; Consumer; Surgery; Evidence-based practice; World wide web; Internet; Parathyroidectomy; Information; Evidence-based medicine; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0364-2313; 1432-2323
• DOI: 10.1007/s00268-009-0306-x

Background The Internet is increasingly used as a source of health information by patients. Under these circumstances, the opportunity exists for Internet sites ostensibly providing patient information to act to promote surgical referrals based on exaggerated claims. This study aims to assess quantitatively and qualitatively the Internet-based consumer health information for minimally invasive parathyroidectomy (MIP) techniques. Methods This is a prospective analysis of Internet web sites. Descriptive information about specific published claims on each of the web sites was documented and compared to the published evidence base. Web sites were then rated using a validated composite score (CS) tool and an MIP score tool developed specifically for the study. Results The search yielded 308 web sites, which, after assessment by the inclusion criteria left 44 unique web sites suitable for analysis. “Exaggerated,” “misleading,” or “false” claims were present in 27.3% of the web sites analyzed. The false claims category had a high negative item-total correlation with the overall score, and accuracy was found to have a statistically significant ( p  < 0.05) negative correlation with quality. However, analysis performed for country of origin and the organization responsible for the web site found no significant difference. Conclusions Web sites offering information in relation to MIP have a surprisingly high rate of claims that are not in accord with the evidence. Such claims may be posted to attract surgical referrals. It is difficult for consumers to differentiate quality consumer health web sites from poor ones as there are no hard and fast rules to differentiate them.