Title
Can Patients Trust Online Health Information? A Meta-narrative Systematic Review Addressing the Quality of Health Information on the Internet
Date Issued
15 September 2019
Access level
open access
Resource Type
review
Author(s)
Daraz L.
Morrow A.S.
Beuschel B.
Farah M.H.
Katabi A.
Alsawas M.
Majzoub A.M.
Benkhadra R.
Seisa M.O.
Ding J.(.
Prokop L.
Murad M.H.
Mayo Clinic
Publisher(s)
Springer New York LLC
Abstract
Background: The Internet has become a leading source of health information accessed by patients and the general public. It is crucial that this information is reliable and accurate. Objectives: The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the overall quality of online health information targeting patients and the general public. Methods: The systematic review is based on a pre-established protocol and is reported according to the PRISMA statement. Eleven databases and Internet searches were performed for relevant studies. Descriptive statistics were used to synthesize data. The NIH Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Results: Out of 3393 references, we included 153 cross-sectional studies evaluating 11,785 websites using 14 quality assessment tools. The quality level varied across scales. Using DISCERN, none of the websites received a category of excellent in quality, 37–79% were rated as good, and the rest were rated as poor quality. Only 18% of websites were HON Code certified. Quality varied by affiliation (governmental was higher than academic, which was higher than other media sources) and by health specialty (likely higher in internal medicine and anesthesiology). Conclusion: This comprehensive systematic review demonstrated suboptimal quality of online health information. Therefore, the Internet at the present time does not provide reliable health information for laypersons. The quality of online health information requires significant improvement which should be a mandate for policymakers and private and public organizations.
Start page
1884
End page
1891
Volume
34
Issue
9
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Salud ocupacional
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85068103399
PubMed ID
Source
Journal of General Internal Medicine
ISSN of the container
08848734
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus