HON Label and DISCERN as Content Quality Indicators of Health-Related Websites

Abstract

Content quality indicators are warranted in order to help patients and consumers to judge the content quality of health-related on-line information. The aim of the present study is to evaluate web-based information on health topics and to assess particular content quality indicators like HON (Health on the Net) and DISCERN. The present study is based on the analysis of data issued from six previous studies which assessed with a standardized tool the general and content quality (evidence-based health information) of health-related websites. Keywords related to Social phobia, bipolar disorders, pathological gambling as well as cannabis, alcohol and cocaine addiction were entered into popular World Wide Web search engines. Websites were assessed with a standardized proforma designed to rate sites on the basis of accountability, presentation, interactivity, readability and content quality (evidence-based information). ''Health on the Net'' (HON) quality label, and DISCERN scale scores were used to verify their efficiency as quality indicators. Of 874 websites identified, 388 were included. Despite an observed association with higher content quality scores, the HON label fails to predict good content quality websites when used in a multiple regression. Sensibility and specificity of a DISCERN score [40 in the detection of good content quality websites were, respectively, 0.45 and 0.96. The DIS-CERN is a potential quality indicator with a relatively high specificity. Further developments in this domain are warranted in order to facilitate the identification of high-quality information on the web by patients.

Quality of Smartphone Apps Related to Alcohol Use Disorder

“…Raters completed an in-group practice run of a set number of materials, which were checked (with a standardized coding process for each component) and discussed before the evaluators participated separately in a formal assessment process. By following similar training procedures, a number of previous studies found good inter-rater reliability for the instruments used in the present study [51,58]. …”

“…We evaluated them by using tools from previous studies and modified instruments from quality evaluation studies of websites [51,52,53,54,55,56,57], as well as instruments represented in various studies on the quality of smartphone apps [22,23,37,38,44]. …”

“…The HON label was usually linked to other ethical assessments such as accountability [51]. It was, however, inconsistently associated with content quality [51,53]. The scale ranges from 0 to 8.…”

Assessment of the quality and content of website health information about herbal remedies for menopausal symptoms

“…The DISCERN tool has been validated [18] and appears to be a better indicator of website quality than Health On the Net (HON) [29].However other website quality indicators were not checked and website scoring does involve a degree of subjectivity. This subjectivity was countered by two researchers (JS and PK) independently assessing a sample of 5 websites and discussing differences in allocated scores to reach consensus.…”

Exercising soft closure on lay health knowledge? Harnessing the declining power of the medical profession to improve online health information

“…Multiple national samples of the public were asked to assess written information during the development of the tool, giving rise to good inter-examiner agreement (Charnock et al, 1999). Furthermore, the finalised DISCERN instrument has been applied and validated in many different contexts and study samples (Khazaal et al, 2012). The DISCERN instrument includes components assessing website bias, benefits of each treatment, risks of each treatment, information on alternative treatments, relevance, areas of uncertainty, and overall quality.…”