Online Information on Probiotics: Does It Match Scientific Evidence?

ABSTRACT: Probiotics are over-the-counter products marketed for enhancing human health. Online information has been key in promoting probiotics worldwide. However, only few rigorous clinical studies have met the stringent criteria required to establish the efficacy and safety of probiotics. The present study was undertaken to assess the information quality of webpages referring to probiotics and to compare the recommendations available online with the information collected from trusted scientific sources. We evaluated 150 webpages returned by Google searching "probiotics" in terms of typology of website, health information quality based on the JAMA score and the HONcode certification, as well as completeness of the information based on the presence of four criteria: (1) links to scientific reference

SUBMITTER: Neunez M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6974687 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature