ABS: Fallis, Indicators of accuracy of consumer health information

[Gretchen Whitney]

Don Fallis : fallis at email.arizona.edu

Title           Indicators of accuracy of consumer health information on the
Internet: A study of indicators relating to information for managing fever
in children in the home
Author  Fallis D, Fricke M
Journal JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL INFORMATICS ASSOCIATION   9 (1):
73-79 JAN-FEB           2002


EXCERPT FROM PAPER :
"The number of in-links to a particular Website is the number of other Web
sites that include hyper-links to that Web site.  The number of in-links to
a Web Site is the Web equivalent of the citation count of a journal article
from traditional bibliometrics(20).  Several search engines provide
information as to how many other sites link to a particular site.  In this
study, we used Lycos to measure the number of in-links.  For the 100 sites
that we investigated, the number of in-links varied from 0 to about 37,000.
Just less than half of these sites were referred to by more than 1,000 other
sites.  Websites to which more than 1,000 other Websites linked were deemed
to have "many in-links"."

Document type: Article    Language: English
Cited References: 24      Times Cited: 0


Abstract:
Objectives: To identify indicators of accuracy for consumer health
information on the Internet. The results will help lay people distinguish
accurate from inaccurate health information on the Internet.

Design: Several popular search engines (Yahoo, AltaVista, and Google) were
used to find Web pages on the treatment of fever in children. The accuracy
and completeness of these Web pages was determined by comparing their
content with that of an instrument developed from authoritative sources on
treating fever in children. The presence on these Web pages of a number of
proposed indicators of accuracy, taken from published guidelines for
evaluating the quality of health information on the Internet, was noted.

Main Outcome Measures: Correlation between the accuracy of Web pages on
treating fever in children and the presence of proposed indicators of
accuracy on these pages. Likelihood ratios for the presence (and absence) of
these proposed indicators.

Results: One hundred Web pages were identified and characterized as "more
accurate" or "less accurate." Three indicators correlated with accuracy:
displaying the HONcode logo, having an organization domain, and displaying a
copyright. Many proposed indicators taken from published guidelines did not
correlate with accuracy (e.g., the author being identified and the author
having medical credentials) or inaccuracy (e.g., lack of currency and
advertising).

Conclusions: This method provides a systematic way of identifying indicators
that are correlated with the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of health information
on the Internet. Three such indicators have been identified in this study.
Identifying such indicators and informing the providers and consumers of
health information about them would be valuable for public health care.

KeyWords Plus:
RELIABILITY, QUALITY, WEB

Addresses:
Fallis D, Univ Arizona, Sch Informat Res & Lib Sci, 1515 E 1st St, Tucson,
AZ 85719 USA
Univ Arizona, Sch Informat Res & Lib Sci, Tucson, AZ 85719 USA

Publisher:
HANLEY & BELFUS INC, PHILADELPHIA

IDS Number:
541ZU

ISSN:
1067-5027

Cited Author            Cited Work                Volume      Page      Year

 *HLTH NET FDN         POL HONC                                        2000
 AMBRE J               CRITERIA ASSESSING Q                            2000
 BERKOW R              MERCK MANUAL MED INF                            1997
 BERLAND GK            JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC          285      2612      2001
 BIERMANN JS           CANCER                        86       381      1999
 BOWER H               BRIT MED J                   313       381      1996
 CICCHETTI DV          J CLIN EPIDEMIOL              43       551      1990
 DAVIS R               US TODAY        0714                    A1      1999
 ELRADHI AS            FEVER PEDIAT PRACTIC                            1994
 FALLIS D              P AMIA ANN S                          1055      1999
 FALLIS D              SOCIAL EPISTEMOLOGY           14       305      2000
 FRICKE M              J AM SOC INFORM SCI           48       882      1997
 GARFIELD E            SCIENCE                      178       471      1972
 GOLDMAN AI            KNOWLEDGE SOCIAL WOR                            1999
 GOLDMAN AI            SYNTHESE                      73       109      1987
 GRAY JAM              BRIT MED J                   317      1500      1998
 GREENHALGH T          BRIT MED J                   315       540      1997
 IMPICCIATORE P        BRIT MED J                   314      1875      1997
 JADAD AR              JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC          279       611      1998
 KIM P                 BRIT MED J                   318       647      1999
 PERRY JA              J AM SOC INFORM SCI           37       177      1986
 PRICE S               P AMIA ANN S                           911      1999
 SILBERG WM            JAMA-J AM MED ASSOC          277      1244      1997
 SPITZER RL            BRIT J PSYCHIAT              125       341      1974


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