Bad News: Analysis of the Quality of Information on Influenza Prevention Returned by Google in English and Italian.

ABSTRACT: Information available to the public influences the approach of the population toward vaccination against influenza compared with other preventative approaches. In this study, we have analyzed the first 200 websites returned by searching Google on two topics (prevention of influenza and influenza vaccine), in English and Italian. For all the four searches above, websites were classified according to their typology (government, commercial, professional, portals, etc.) and for their trustworthiness as defined by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) score, which assesses whether they provide some basic elements of information quality (IQ): authorship, currency, disclosure, and references. The type of information described was also assessed to add another dimension of IQ. Webs

SUBMITTER: Maki A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4672033 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature