Evaluation of Online Health Information of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Creators: name: Boon Kie Kho
name: Syarafina Izahar
name: Kamarudin Ahmad
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020
Subjects: Online Health Information
Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
Evaluation

description: <strong>Introduction </strong>Diabetes Mellitus is a significant public health concern in Malaysia. Older patients constitute the majority of this population and they are more vulnerable to online resources of highly variable quality. In this study, we aimed to evaluate quality of the online information on the management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), compare the quality of online resources among different website affiliations, and between the first three pages and the next three pages of search. <strong>Methods </strong>We adopted Quality Evaluation Scoring Tool (QUEST) which quantitatively measures six aspects of the quality including authorship, attribution, conflict of interest, currency, complementarity, and tone. § Two reviewers independently reviewed the content and disagreements resolved by a third reviewer. § We performed descriptive statistics and classified the overall quality of online resources into: (a) very poor if the total score is &lt; 12/28; (b) moderate if the score is 12-23/28 and (c) excellent quality if the score is &gt; 23/28. We analysed the comparison of quality scores among different website affiliations using the Kruskal - Wallis test. Multifactorial ANOVA conducted for comparisons between the first three pages and the next three pages of search results. Statistical significance set at P ≤ 0.05 for the comparisons. <strong>Results </strong>[Refer to Poster]. <strong>Discussion </strong>Study conducted by Thakurdesai et al. stated that the quality of web-sites on DM patient education materials were highly variable. In view of Health Summit Working Group (HSWG) criteria, the content of webpages on T2DM was poor with respect to hierarchy of evidence and original source statement. Our finding is contrary to the study conducted by Isabella et al. which assessed the quality of websites on gum diseases. According to their study, JAMA score of websites varied according to their affiliation with journalism websites scored the highest. Another study conducted by Garfinkle et al. which assessed the quality and accuracy of online health information for patients with low anterior resection syndrome stated that governmental websites scored the highest in overall suitability and quality. Our finding is consistent with findings proposed in the study by Isabella et al. Their findings stated that the JAMA score of the top 10 websites returned by Google was significantly higher (P&lt;0.001) than that of the remaining 186 websites of the Google. The study concluded that search algorithm in Google in some way considers features that are indicators of trustworthiness and credibility. Therefore, it is possible that websites with higher quality rank well in Google. <strong>Conclusion </strong>For patients with T2DM where self management is crucial, the availability of good quality information is important. Based on our study, we found that the overall quality of webpages on management of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus are sub-optimal and are independent of website affliations. Besides, we found that the first three pages of search results demonstrated better quality than that of the next three pages.