Surfing the Net for medical information aboutpsychological trauma: An empirical study of thequality and accuracy of trauma-related websites

Abstract

Psychological trauma is a major public-health problem, and trauma victims frequently turn to the Internet for medical information related to trauma. The Internet has many advantages for trauma victims, including low cost, privacy, use of access, and reduced direct social interactions. However, there are no regulations on what is posted on the Internet, or by whom, and little is known about the quality of information currently available related to the topic of psychological trauma. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of Internet sites related to the topic of psychological trauma. The top 20 hits for searches on Google, AllTheWeb, and Yahoo were tabulated, using search words of 'psychological trauma', 'stress', 'PTSD', and 'trauma'. From these searches, a list of 94 unique unsponsored hits that represented accessible websites was generated. Fourteen sites were unrelated or only peripherally related, and eight were related but were not comprehensively evaluated because they represented brochures, online book sales, etc. Seventy-two websites underwent evaluation of the content, design, disclosure, ease of use, and other factors based on published guidelines for medical information sites. Forty-two per cent of sites had inaccurate information, 82% did not provide a source of their information, and 41% did not use a mental-health professional in the development of the content. Ratings of content (e.g. accuracy, reliability, etc.) were 4 (2 SD) on a scale of 1 - 10, with 10 being the best. There were similar ratings for the other variables assessed. These findings suggest that although abundant, websites providing information about psychological trauma are often not useful, and can sometimes provide inaccurate and potentially harmful information to consumers of medical information.

Establishing Guidelines for Executing and Reporting Internet Intervention Research

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A systematic review of the quality of information on the treatment of anxiety disorders on the internet

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Internet interventions for traumatic stress: A review and theoretically based example

“…However, research on Web interventions for trauma survivors has received little attention to date. The importance of critical evaluation of Web-based traumatic stress interventions was recently made abundantly clear by Bremner et al (2006), who reported that out of 80 identified sites targeting trauma survivors, 42% provided inaccurate or harmful information and only 18% of the sites provided any scientific references for the information provided. Almost half were not authored by mental health professionals at all.…”