Patterns of Internet Use by Pregnant Women, and Reliability of Pregnancy-Related Searches

Abstract

Objective To assess patterns of e-health use in pregnancy in an underserved racially diverse inner-city population, and to assess the accuracy of pregnancy-related information obtained from the Internet. Methods A cross sectional study of 503 pregnant/postpartum women belonging to an underserved racially diverse inner-city population who completed a survey regarding e-health use. To assess accuracy, four independent expert-reviewers rated the first 10 webpages on Google searches for each of five questions based upon those in ACOG bulletins. Results 70.8 % of pregnant/postpartum women belonging to an underserved racially diverse inner-city population were e-health users. E-health users were younger (mean age 29.4 vs. 31.2, P = 0.009), more likely to be nulliparous (50.3 vs. 21.3 %, P < 0.001), have English as their primary language (62.3 vs. 49.1 %, P = 0.014) and have a college/graduate education (78 vs. 26.6 %, P < 0.001). While 60 % of these women said e-health influenced decision making, only 71.3 % of them discussed their searches with their provider. Expert reviewers determined that the online information was fairly accurate (mean score: +1.48 to +4.33 on a scale of -5 to +5) but not uniformly accurate, and there was at least one webpage with inaccurate information for every question. Conclusions for practice Pregnant women frequently use e-health resources but do not routinely share their findings with their providers. Most, but not all, information obtained is accurate. Therefore it is important for providers to discuss their patients' use, and help to guide them to reliable information.

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

“…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.…”

A study on the relationship between internet use, anxiety levels, and quality of life of Turkish pregnant women

“…Today the internet is an important source of information for individuals who are concerned about their health . Studies have revealed that pregnant women use the internet quite often to access information related to pregnancy and to make decisions regarding their health . In the current study, most of the pregnant women stated that their leading source of information related to pregnancy was the “internet,” and about half of them searched the internet about pregnancy‐related issues from the moment they were diagnosed as pregnant.…”

“…A study determined that more than half of the pregnant women thought that the information they obtained from the internet was valid and reliable . In another study conducted on the participants’ satisfaction with e‐health pages, 89.8% of the women regarded these pages as practical, 87% as appropriate, and 83.7% as useful . In contrast to these findings, in Kim and Kim (2009) study, 39.9% of the participants thought that health‐related information obtained from the internet was “wrong” and 42.7% believed that this information “was not appropriate for the health status of the patients.” Many women want to get the latest information to make them feel safer in pregnancy and expect health professionals to offer them a reliable website .…”

“…The data can be interpreted as the fact that women use the internet more and more frequently to satisfy their curiosity and to obtain information about pregnancy. In the current study, the pregnant women scanned the internet mostly on such topics as “fetal development,” “labor birth,” and “baby care.” Another studies found that women most frequently searched the internet about “fetal development” and “nutrition in pregnancy.” In various studies, pregnant women scanned the internet about “prenatal pregnancy complications” most . In a study conducted in Turkey, 92.8% of the pregnant women scanned the internet about the “stages of birth,” 81% of them about “fetal development” and 58.3% of them about “nutrition in pregnancy.” According to the data on the issue, pregnancy‐related internet scans differ from one person to another depending on their gestational age, interests, or previous experiences.…”

“…Approximately half of the participants in the current study thought that the pregnancy‐related information given by the health professionals was not adequate and two‐thirds of them did not share the information about the pregnancy they obtained via the internet with the health professionals. In many studies, it has been determined that there is a positive correlation between women's sharing the knowledge they obtain from the internet with health workers and variables related to health care decision making and that unless health professionals ask questions whether patients get information from the internet, the patients never talk about it . This lack of communication between pregnant women, nurses, midwives, and obstetricians may cause pregnant women not to be aware of the fact that the information she has obtained might be wrong.…”