COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessment
Objective To evaluate the quality of information regarding the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 available to the general public from all countries.Design Systematic analysis using the ‘Ensuring Quality Information for Patients’ (EQIP) Tool (score 0–36), Journal of American Medical Association (J...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2020-09-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/9/e040487.full |
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| author | Daniel Richardson Ka Siu Fan Shahi Abdul Ghani Nikolaos Machairas Lorenzo Lenti Ka Hay Fan Aneya Scott Dimitri Aristotle Raptis |
| author_facet | Daniel Richardson Ka Siu Fan Shahi Abdul Ghani Nikolaos Machairas Lorenzo Lenti Ka Hay Fan Aneya Scott Dimitri Aristotle Raptis |
| author_sort | Daniel Richardson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective To evaluate the quality of information regarding the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 available to the general public from all countries.Design Systematic analysis using the ‘Ensuring Quality Information for Patients’ (EQIP) Tool (score 0–36), Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark (score 0–4) and the DISCERN Tool (score 16–80) to analyse websites containing information targeted at the general public.Data sources Twelve popular search terms, including ‘Coronavirus’, ‘COVID-19 19’, ‘Wuhan virus’, ‘How to treat coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19 19 Prevention’ were identified by ‘Google AdWords’ and ‘Google Trends’. Unique links from the first 10 pages for each search term were identified and evaluated on its quality of information.Eligibility criteria for selecting studies All websites written in the English language, and provides information on prevention or treatment of COVID-19 intended for the general public were considered eligible. Any websites intended for professionals, or specific isolated populations, such as students from one particular school, were excluded, as well as websites with only video content, marketing content, daily caseload update or news dashboard pages with no health information.Results Of the 1275 identified websites, 321 (25%) were eligible for analysis. The overall EQIP, JAMA and DISCERN scores were 17.8, 2.7 and 38.0, respectively. Websites originated from 34 countries, with the majority from the USA (55%). News Services (50%) and Government/Health Departments (27%) were the most common sources of information and their information quality varied significantly. Majority of websites discuss prevention alone despite popular search trends of COVID-19 treatment. Websites discussing both prevention and treatment (n=73, 23%) score significantly higher across all tools (p<0.001).Conclusion This comprehensive assessment of online COVID-19 information using EQIP, JAMA and DISCERN Tools indicate that most websites were inadequate. This necessitates improvements in online resources to facilitate public health measures during the pandemic. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1a536aef8659407691d2319bf47ad059 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj-art-1a536aef8659407691d2319bf47ad0592025-01-07T13:30:09ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552020-09-0110910.1136/bmjopen-2020-040487COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessmentDaniel Richardson0Ka Siu Fan1Shahi Abdul Ghani2Nikolaos Machairas3Lorenzo Lenti4Ka Hay Fan5Aneya Scott6Dimitri Aristotle Raptis7Sexual Health & HIV medicine, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, Brighton, UKSt George`s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UKSt George`s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UKDepartment of HPB Surgery and Liver Transplant, Royal Free Hospital, London, UKSt George`s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UKImperial College London, London, UKSt George`s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UKOrgan Transplant Center of Excellence, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaObjective To evaluate the quality of information regarding the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 available to the general public from all countries.Design Systematic analysis using the ‘Ensuring Quality Information for Patients’ (EQIP) Tool (score 0–36), Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark (score 0–4) and the DISCERN Tool (score 16–80) to analyse websites containing information targeted at the general public.Data sources Twelve popular search terms, including ‘Coronavirus’, ‘COVID-19 19’, ‘Wuhan virus’, ‘How to treat coronavirus’ and ‘COVID-19 19 Prevention’ were identified by ‘Google AdWords’ and ‘Google Trends’. Unique links from the first 10 pages for each search term were identified and evaluated on its quality of information.Eligibility criteria for selecting studies All websites written in the English language, and provides information on prevention or treatment of COVID-19 intended for the general public were considered eligible. Any websites intended for professionals, or specific isolated populations, such as students from one particular school, were excluded, as well as websites with only video content, marketing content, daily caseload update or news dashboard pages with no health information.Results Of the 1275 identified websites, 321 (25%) were eligible for analysis. The overall EQIP, JAMA and DISCERN scores were 17.8, 2.7 and 38.0, respectively. Websites originated from 34 countries, with the majority from the USA (55%). News Services (50%) and Government/Health Departments (27%) were the most common sources of information and their information quality varied significantly. Majority of websites discuss prevention alone despite popular search trends of COVID-19 treatment. Websites discussing both prevention and treatment (n=73, 23%) score significantly higher across all tools (p<0.001).Conclusion This comprehensive assessment of online COVID-19 information using EQIP, JAMA and DISCERN Tools indicate that most websites were inadequate. This necessitates improvements in online resources to facilitate public health measures during the pandemic.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/9/e040487.full |
| spellingShingle | Daniel Richardson Ka Siu Fan Shahi Abdul Ghani Nikolaos Machairas Lorenzo Lenti Ka Hay Fan Aneya Scott Dimitri Aristotle Raptis COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessment BMJ Open |
| title | COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessment |
| title_full | COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessment |
| title_fullStr | COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessment |
| title_full_unstemmed | COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessment |
| title_short | COVID-19 prevention and treatment information on the internet: a systematic analysis and quality assessment |
| title_sort | covid 19 prevention and treatment information on the internet a systematic analysis and quality assessment |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/9/e040487.full |
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