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An evaluation of web‐based information
Author(s) -
Murphy Rebecca,
Frost Susie,
Webster Peter,
Schmidt Ulrike
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/eat.10245
Subject(s) - accountability , quality (philosophy) , psychology , information quality , mental health , applied psychology , psychiatry , information system , political science , philosophy , epistemology , law
Objective To evaluate the quality of web‐based information on the treatment of eating disorders and to investigate potential indicators of content quality. Method Two search engines were queried to obtain 15 commonly accessed websites about eating disorders. Two reviewers evaluated the characteristics, quality of content, and accountability of the sites. Intercorrelations between variables were calculated. Results The overall quality of the sites was poor based on the outcome measures used. All quality of content measures correlated with a measure of accountability (Silberg, W.M., Lundberg, G.D., & Mussachio, R.A., 1993). Discussion There is a lack of quality information on the treatment of eating disorders on the web. Although accountability criteria may be useful indicators of content quality, there is a need to investigate whether these can be usefully applied to other mental health areas. © 2004 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 35: 145–154, 2004.