Sources of medical information of patients referred to colorectal surgery outpatient clinic for hemorrhoidal disease

Abstract

Background:We surveyed patients with hemorrhoids about their behavior regarding searching for information about that disease and confronted it with data obtained from Google Trends website and Google searches. We aimed to determine sources of information on hemorrhoids used by patients. Secondary aim was to assess the quality of information provided by Internet in particular. Materials and methods: We collected 78 surveys from patients of the outpatient surgical clinic at Medical University of Gdańsk, in which we asked about sources of information about hemorrhoids. We used Google Trends to analyze most often used search queries associated with that topic. In result, we analyzed the content of top 10 Google search results of that queries in order to verify reliability. Results: Over 80% of surveyed patients looked for information about that disease online, 50% of whom were satisfied with the quality of information obtained. Our Google Trends analysis showed that term hemorrhoids has overwhelming prevalence in comparison to remaining terms. Analysis of top 10 Google search results showed that 7 in 10 organic links lead to websites with professional information about hemorrhoids. Conclusions: Patients use the Internet as a source of knowledge about hemorrhoids and find it satisfactory. Moreover, our research indicates that this information is reliable. Relative popularity of queries over monthsPanel A Appendix for table 1. Abbreviated results of the survey Graph 1: Panel A. Relative popularity of queries over the months of the year 2006-2018