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. 2018 Apr 11;19(1):112.
doi: 10.1186/s12891-018-2018-6.

Quality of internet-based decision aids for shoulder arthritis: what are patients reading?

Jeremy S Somerson  1 , Aaron J Bois  2 , Jeffrey Jeng  3 , Kamal I Bohsali  4 , John W Hinchey  5 , Michael A Wirth  5
Affiliations

Quality of internet-based decision aids for shoulder arthritis: what are patients reading?

Jeremy S Somerson et al. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. .

Abstract

Background: The objective of this study was to assess the source, quality, accuracy, and completeness of Internet-based information for shoulder arthritis.

Methods: A web search was performed using three common Internet search engines and the top 50 sites from each search were analyzed. Information sources were categorized into academic, commercial, non-profit, and physician sites. Information quality was measured using the Health On the Net (HON) Foundation principles, content accuracy by counting factual errors and completeness using a custom template.

Results: After removal of duplicates and sites that did not provide an overview of shoulder arthritis, 49 websites remained for analysis. The majority of sites were from commercial (n = 16, 33%) and physician (n = 16, 33%) sources. An additional 12 sites (24%) were from an academic institution and five sites (10%) were from a non-profit organization. Commercial sites had the highest number of errors, with a five-fold likelihood of containing an error compared to an academic site. Non-profit sites had the highest HON scores, with an average of 9.6 points on a 16-point scale. The completeness score was highest for academic sites, with an average score of 19.2 ± 6.7 (maximum score of 49 points); other information sources had lower scores (commercial, 15.2 ± 2.9; non-profit, 18.7 ± 6.8; physician, 16.6 ± 6.3).

Conclusions: Patient information on the Internet regarding shoulder arthritis is of mixed accuracy, quality, and completeness. Surgeons should actively direct patients to higher-quality Internet sources.

Keywords: Arthritis; Internet-based information; Shoulder.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ information

Presented in poster format at the 13th Meeting of the Combined Orthopaedic Associations, Cape Town, South Africa, April 2016 (presenting author AJB).

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart demonstrating number of websites included and excluded at each stage of the review
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Box plot depicting the HON Quality Score by authorship. Bars represent maximum and minimum data values
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Box plot depicting content completeness score by authorship. Bars represent maximum and minimum data values
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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