Adding Dimensions to the Analysis of the Quality of Health Information of Websites Returned by Google: Cluster Analysis Identifies Patterns of Websites According to their Classification and the Type of Intervention Described.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Most of the instruments used to assess the quality of health information on the Web (e.g., the JAMA criteria) only analyze one dimension of information quality (IQ), trustworthiness. In this study, we analyzed the type of intervention that websites describe, whether supported by evidence-based medicine (EBM) or not, to provide a further dimension of IQ, accuracy, and correlated this with the established criteria.

Methods

We searched Google for "migraine cure" and analyzed the first 200 websites for: (1) JAMA criteria (authorship, attribution, disclosure, currency); (2) class of websites (commercial, health portals, professional, patient groups, no-profit); and (3) type of intervention described (approved drugs, alternative medicine, food, procedures, life

SUBMITTER: Yaqub M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4548082 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature