Crowdsourcing and the Accuracy of Online Information Regarding Weight Gain in Pregnancy: A Descriptive Study

Chang, Tammy; Verma, Bianca A.; Shull, Trevor; Moniz, Michelle H.; Kohatsu, Lauren; Plegue, Melissa; Collins-Thompson, Kevyn

doi:10.2196/jmir.5138

Cited by 14 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Indeed, many health fields have since used crowdsourcing, with 20 medical fields identified in our systematic review compared with 8 fields in the Ranard et al’s study [ 5 ]. Moreover, crowdsourcing use is still growing, as shown by the 11 articles published in Journal of Medical Internet Research since our last search date, mainly involving a survey task (9/11, 82%) [ 217 - 227 ]. Our study has some limitations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping of Crowdsourcing in Health: Systematic Review

Créquit¹,

Mansouri²,

Benchoufi³

et al. 2018

J Med Internet Res

108

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Background Crowdsourcing involves obtaining ideas, needed services, or content by soliciting Web-based contributions from a crowd. The 4 types of crowdsourced tasks (problem solving, data processing, surveillance or monitoring, and surveying) can be applied in the 3 categories of health (promotion, research, and care). Objective This study aimed to map the different applications of crowdsourcing in health to assess the fields of health that are using crowdsourcing and the crowdsourced tasks used. We also describe the logistics of crowdsourcing and the characteristics of crowd workers. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched for available reports from inception to March 30, 2016, with no restriction on language or publication status. Results We identified 202 relevant studies that used crowdsourcing, including 9 randomized controlled trials, of which only one had posted results at ClinicalTrials.gov. Crowdsourcing was used in health promotion (91/202, 45.0%), research (73/202, 36.1%), and care (38/202, 18.8%). The 4 most frequent areas of application were public health (67/202, 33.2%), psychiatry (32/202, 15.8%), surgery (22/202, 10.9%), and oncology (14/202, 6.9%). Half of the reports (99/202, 49.0%) referred to data processing, 34.6% (70/202) referred to surveying, 10.4% (21/202) referred to surveillance or monitoring, and 5.9% (12/202) referred to problem-solving. Labor market platforms (eg, Amazon Mechanical Turk) were used in most studies (190/202, 94%). The crowd workers’ characteristics were poorly reported, and crowdsourcing logistics were missing from two-thirds of the reports. When reported, the median size of the crowd was 424 (first and third quartiles: 167-802); crowd workers’ median age was 34 years (32-36). Crowd workers were mainly recruited nationally, particularly in the United States. For many studies (58.9%, 119/202), previous experience in crowdsourcing was required, and passing a qualification test or training was seldom needed (11.9% of studies; 24/202). For half of the studies, monetary incentives were mentioned, with mainly less than US $1 to perform the task. The time needed to perform the task was mostly less than 10 min (58.9% of studies; 119/202). Data quality validation was used in 54/202 studies (26.7%), mainly by attention check questions or by replicating the task with several crowd workers. Conclusions The use of crowdsourcing, which allows access to a large pool of participants as well as saving time in data collection, lowering costs, and speeding up innovations, is increasing in health promotion, research, and care. However, the description of crowdsourcing logistics and crowd workers’ characteristics is frequently missing in study reports and needs to be precisely reported to better interpret the study findings and replicate them.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping of Crowdsourcing in Health: Systematic Review

Créquit¹,

Mansouri²,

Benchoufi³

et al. 2018

J Med Internet Res

108

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“…17 With the dramatic rise of accessibility of the internet and its widespread use by the general Australian population, 18,19 this trend is not surprising. The accuracy of online information targeted to pregnant women has been evaluated by some authors, [20][21][22][23] however regularly monitoring is required due to the rapid expansion of online sites, and the risk that nutrition misinformation may pose to women if they follow non-evidence-based advice. 24 The aim of the present study was to (a) identify where women source their nutrition information during pregnancy and whether this has changed over time across multiple surveys and (b) assess the accuracy of nutrition information for pregnancy that is available online.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the dramatic rise of accessibility of the internet and its widespread use by the general Australian population, this trend is not surprising. The accuracy of online information targeted to pregnant women has been evaluated by some authors, however regularly monitoring is required due to the rapid expansion of online sites, and the risk that nutrition misinformation may pose to women if they follow non‐evidence‐based advice …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrition information in pregnancy: Where do women seek advice and has this changed over time?

Lobo

Lucas

Herbert

et al. 2019

Nutrition & Dietetics

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Aim: Nutrition during pregnancy is fundamental to both the health of the mother and her baby. Sources of nutrition-related information are available via many sources but their accuracy is unknown. The present study aimed to (a) identify where women source their nutrition information during pregnancy and (2) assess the accuracy of nutrition information for pregnancy that is available on the internet. Methods: A survey instrument that identified the main sources of nutrition information was administered to 68 pregnant women recruited online. Data from this survey were compared to previous similar surveys conducted with pregnant mothers across years 2008, 2011 and 2014. A content analysis of websites was simultaneously conducted to assess the accuracy of available information. Results: The main source of nutrition information for a variety of topics was verbal communication from health professionals (% responses affirmative for that source ranged from 6.6% to 69% across survey years). There was an increasing trend in internet sourced information for most nutrition topics, but this source remained low for iodine across all years (range: 7.3%-15.9%). The internet was the main source of information for listeria/food safety (15.3%-32.4%) and healthy eating (25%-42%). Of the n = 165 websites identified by the content analysis, 82.4% (n = 136) were rated as accurate, with government (96.9%) and business/company (100%) sites having the highest accuracy. Conclusion: Verbal communication from health professionals remains the most important source of nutrition information for pregnancy. The high credibility of websites indicates this to be an additional resource. Further study into health literacy levels among women visiting these sites is needed to assess impact on dietary behaviour.

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“…Additionally, the Internet is a common source of health information among pregnant women with nearly all women (94 %) using the Internet for pregnancy-related information [16–18]. However, one recent study concluded that the most frequently visited webpages on gestational weight gain do not provide accurate and complete information compared to the 2009 Institute of Medicine guidelines for gestational weight gain [19, 20]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advice given by community members to pregnant women: a mixed methods study

Verma

Plegue

Moniz

et al. 2016

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth

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BackgroundSmoking and excess weight gain during pregnancy have been shown to have serious health consequences for both mothers and their infants. Advice from friends and family on these topics influences pregnant women’s behaviors. The purpose of our study was to compare the advice that community members give pregnant women about smoking versus the advice they give about pregnancy weight gain.MethodsA survey was sent via text messaging to adults in a diverse, low-income primary care clinic in 2015. Respondents were asked what advice (if any) they have given pregnant women about smoking or gestational weight gain and their comfort-level discussing the topics. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample population and to determine response rates. Open-ended responses were analyzed qualitatively using grounded theory analysis with an overall convergent parallel mixed methods design.ResultsRespondents (n = 370) were 77 % female, 40 % black, and 25 % reported education of high school or less. More respondents had spoken to pregnant women about smoking (40 %, n = 147) than weight gain (20 %, n = 73). Among individuals who had not discussed either topic (n = 181), more reported discomfort in talking about weight gain (65 %) compared to smoking (34 %; p < 0.0001). Advice about smoking during pregnancy (n = 148) was frequently negative, recommending abstinence and identifying smoking as harmful for baby and/or mother. Advice about weight gain in pregnancy (n = 74) revealed a breadth of messages, from reassurance about all weight gain (“Eat away” or “It’s ok if you are gaining weight”), to specific warnings against excess weight gain (“Too much was dangerous for her and the baby.”).ConclusionsMany community members give advice to pregnant women. Their advice reveals varied perspectives on the effects of pregnancy weight gain. Compared to a nearly ubiquitous understanding of the harms of smoking during pregnancy, community members demonstrated less awareness of and willingness to discuss the harms of excessive weight gain. Beyond educating pregnant women, community-level interventions may also be important to ensure that the information pregnant women receive supports healthy behaviors and promotes the long-term health of both moms and babies.

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Crowdsourcing and the Accuracy of Online Information Regarding Weight Gain in Pregnancy: A Descriptive Study

Cited by 14 publications

References 36 publications

Mapping of Crowdsourcing in Health: Systematic Review

Mapping of Crowdsourcing in Health: Systematic Review

Nutrition information in pregnancy: Where do women seek advice and has this changed over time?

Advice given by community members to pregnant women: a mixed methods study

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