The costs outweigh the benefits: seeing side-effects online may decrease adherence to statins.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The prevalence of medical misinformation on the Internet has received much attention among researchers concerned that exposure to such information may inhibit patient adherence to prescriptions. Yet, little is known about information people see when they search for medical information and the extent to which exposure is directly related to their decisions to follow physician recommendations. These issues were examined using statin prescriptions as a case study.

Methods

We developed and used a tool to rank the quality of statin-related web pages based on the presence of information about side effects, clinical benefits, management of side effects, and misinformation. We then conducted an experiment in which students were presented with a hypothetical scenario in wh

SUBMITTER: Jones NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7439707 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature