Physician evaluation of internet health information on proton therapy for prostate cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Many patients considering prostate cancer (PCa) treatment options report seeking proton beam therapy (PBT) based in part on information readily available on the Internet. There is, however, potential for considerable variation in Internet health information (IHI). We thus evaluated the characteristics, quality, and accuracy of IHI on PBT for PCa.

Methods and materials

We undertook a qualitative research study using snowball-purposive sampling in which we evaluated the top 50 Google search results for "proton prostate cancer." Quality was evaluated on a 5-point scale using the validated 15-question DISCERN instrument. Accuracy was evaluated by comparing IHI with the best available evidence.

Results

Thirty-seven IHI websites were included in the final sample. Th

SUBMITTER: Shah A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4277870 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature