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Health information quality of websites on periodontology
Author(s) -
Bizzi Isabella,
Ghezzi Pietro,
Paudyal Priyamvada
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of clinical periodontology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.456
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1600-051X
pISSN - 0303-6979
DOI - 10.1111/jcpe.12668
Subject(s) - medicine , certification , test (biology) , accreditation , periodontology , the internet , family medicine , information quality , dentistry , medical education , information system , world wide web , paleontology , political science , computer science , law , biology , electrical engineering , engineering
Aim This study aimed to assess the quality of the information available on the Web on gum disease. Methods The term “gum disease” was searched in Google and in MedlinePlus. The first 200 websites were analysed by the Journal of the American Medical Association ( JAMA ) criteria and the Health On the Net Foundation ( HONC ode) certification, instruments for assessing quality of health information. Data were analysed the Mann–Whitney test or Kruskal–Wallis test, followed by the Dunn's test, using the GraphPad Prism Software version 6. Results MedlinePlus presented a significantly higher JAMA score than Google. Google's first 10 results had a higher JAMA score than the remaining websites. Journalism and health portals the most reliable affiliations, while commercial and dental practices had low JAMA scores. JAMA score was significantly higher in websites with the HONC ode certification compared to the ones without it. Conclusion Currently, there are concerns regarding patients' use of the Internet for accessing health information. However, the conclusion we can make is that Google seems to favour websites with high quality information, at least in terms of JAMA score or HONC ode accreditation. The JAMA score of dental practices' websites could be improved by providing basic information such as authorship and date.