Tinnitus information online – does it ring true?

McKearney, Richard M.; Mackinnon, Robert C.; Smith, Mark C.; Baker, Richard J.

doi:10.1017/s0022215118001792

Cited by 20 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…English websites regarding information about the treatment of obesity and interventions on weight loss in people with obesity were, in general, better than the Italian websites. In particular, the Italian websites were more difficult to read, although in both languages the websites were, on average, difficult to read, as seen in the past in other studies that evaluated the readability of English websites [1,28]. English websites invested more in the experience of the user and mobile accessibility, an essential feature currently, since a large part of the web traffic pass now on mobile phones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Quality of information of websites dedicated to obesity: a systematic search to promote high level of information for Internet users and professionals

Perra

Preti

Lorenzo³

et al. 2021

Eat Weight Disord

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Background The Internet is increasingly used as a source of information. This study investigates with a multidimensional methodology the quality of information of websites dedicated to obesity treatment and weight-loss interventions. We compared websites in English, a language that it is used for the international scientific divulgation, and in Italian, a popular local language. Methods Level of Evidence: Level I, systematic review search on four largely used search engines. Duplicated and unrelated websites were excluded. We checked: popularity with PageRank; technological quality with Nibbler; readability with the Flesch Reading Ease test or the Gulpease readability index; quality of information with the DISCERN scale, the JAMA benchmark criteria, and the adherence to the Health on the Net Code. Results 63 Italian websites and 41 English websites were evaluated. English websites invested more in the technological quality especially for the marketing, experience of the user, and mobile accessibility. Both the Italian and English websites were of poor quality and readability. Conclusions These results can inform guidelines for the improvement of health information and help Internet users to achieve a higher level of information. Users must find benefits of treatment, support to the shared decision-making, the sources used, the medical editor's supervision, and the risk of postponing the treatment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Quality of information of websites dedicated to obesity: a systematic search to promote high level of information for Internet users and professionals

Perra

Preti

Lorenzo³

et al. 2021

Eat Weight Disord

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…En los últimos años han proliferado los estudios estadísticos acerca de los diferentes aspectos relacionados con los acúfenos, tales como etiología, lateralidad, comorbilidades (Basch et al, 2018;Greenwell, Featherstone y Hoare, 2015;Kalle et al, 2018;McKearney, MacKinnon, Smith y Baker, 2018), así como sobre la eficiencia de algunos tratamientos (Andersson, Strömgren, Ström y Lyttkens, 2002;Andersson y Kaldo, 2004;Beukes et al, 2018;Probst, Weise, Andersson y Kleinstäuber, 2019;Taylor et al, 2017). La fiabilidad estadística de estos estudios se incrementa con el número de pacientes.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Online research on tinnitus and hyperacusis via our website

Roitman¹

2019

loquens

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The internet is a formidable information tool. We have used in this paper the data obtained online from 12,350 tinnitus and hyperacusis patients who responded to the 16 questions asked as a prelude to a formal medical consultation. The data thus obtained allow us to have a statistical notion of many aspects of these symptoms and their impact on the lives of a significant group of Spanish speaking patients.

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“…It is imperative that health-related websites should be written at a level which can be easily comprehended by the general public. Many adults are known to have limited health literacy [6,26,33,38]. The majority of websites in this study exceeded the recommended reading level of firth to sixth grades.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

Quality and readability of English-language Internet information for vestibular disorders

Felipe

Beukes

Fox

et al. 2020

VES

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BACKGROUND:The Internet has become a powerful, accessible resource for many patients to use for their own medical management and knowledge. Vestibular disorders are prevalent, especially in the elderly. As the Internet is increasingly a major source of health-related information to the general public, it is often used to search for information regarding dizziness and vertigo. Ensuring that the information is accessible, unbiased, and appropriate can aid informed decision-making. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality and readability of English-language Internet information related to vestibular disorders. METHODS: A cross-sectional website search using three keywords (nausea, dizziness, and vertigo) in five country-specific versions of the most commonly used Internet search engine was conducted in March 2018. The language was limited to English for all websites. Quality was assessed by presence of Health on the Net (HON) certification and DISCERN scores. Readability was assessed using the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Formula (F-KGL), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG). RESULTS: In total, 112 websites were included and analyzed. The majority were commercial (61%) websites. A total of 42% had obtained HON certification. No association was found between the presence of HON certification and the resource of the website. The DISCERN scores had a mean of 2.52 (SD 1.1). Readability measures indicated that an average of 14-18 years of education was required to read and understand the Internet information provided regarding vestibular disorders. CONCLUSIONS: To ensure the accessible to the general population, it is necessary to improve the quality and readability of Internet-based information regarding vestibular disorders.

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Tinnitus information online – does it ring true?

Cited by 20 publications

References 26 publications

Quality of information of websites dedicated to obesity: a systematic search to promote high level of information for Internet users and professionals

Quality of information of websites dedicated to obesity: a systematic search to promote high level of information for Internet users and professionals

Online research on tinnitus and hyperacusis via our website

Quality and readability of English-language Internet information for vestibular disorders

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