Li L, Irvin E, Guzmán J, Bombardier C
Healthcare Research Division, Arthritis & Autoimmunity Research Center, University Health Network, Toronto, Canada.
Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2001 Mar 1;26(5):545-57. doi: 10.1097/00007632-200103010-00020.
A prospective, systematic review of web sites related to back pain.
To assess the nature and quality of back pain-related information on the World Wide Web during a 2-year period.
The Internet has become a rich source of medical information. Limited knowledge is available, however, about the quality of online resources. Although previous systematic reviews on medical-related web sites found problems in varying degrees with the credibility of information, no such review was conducted to assess the back pain-related sites.
A search of web sites was conducted in November 1996 using five search engines (AltaVista, Infoseek, Lycos, Yahoo, and Magellan) and two key terms ("back pain" and "back problems"). A sample of sites was evaluated by two independent reviewers. Each site was described by the type and nature of the sponsor, target audience, and content. Overall quality was assessed in terms of evidence-based information available.
Seventy-four web sites were reviewed in 1996, and nine of them (12.2%) were identified as high-quality sites. Advertising was the focus of 80.8% of the sites. Eleven sites (14.9%) were found to be discontinued 1 year later, and 20 (27.0%) were not accessible by the reviewers at the 2-year follow-up evaluation. Of the remaining 54 sites, 44.4% were produced by for-profit companies, and most sites targeted people with back pain (63.0%). Only seven out of the nine high-quality sites held their ratings at the 2-year follow-up evaluation.
Most back pain-related web sites can be classified as advertising. The quality varied considerably, resulting in difficulties for patients to find useful information in this field. The increasing number of people seeking medical information on the Web creates a need for more high quality sites. Further, systematic review of web sites should be encouraged to monitor the accuracy of Internet publication.
对与背痛相关网站进行前瞻性、系统性综述。
评估两年期间万维网上与背痛相关信息的性质和质量。
互联网已成为丰富的医学信息来源。然而，关于在线资源的质量了解有限。尽管先前对医学相关网站的系统性综述发现信息可信度存在不同程度的问题，但尚未进行此类综述来评估与背痛相关的网站。
1996年11月使用五个搜索引擎（AltaVista、Infoseek、Lycos、雅虎和麦哲伦）和两个关键词（“背痛”和“背部问题”）对网站进行搜索。由两名独立评审员对网站样本进行评估。每个网站由主办者的类型和性质、目标受众和内容进行描述。根据可得的循证信息评估总体质量。
1996年对74个网站进行了综述，其中9个（12.2%）被确定为高质量网站。80.8%的网站以广告为重点。11个网站（14.9%）在1年后被发现已停用，20个（27.0%）在两年随访评估时评审员无法访问。在其余54个网站中，44.4%由盈利性公司制作，大多数网站针对背痛患者（63.0%）。九个高质量网站中只有七个在两年随访评估时保持其评级。
大多数与背痛相关的网站可归类为广告。质量差异很大，导致患者在该领域难以找到有用信息。越来越多的人在网上寻求医疗信息，这就需要更多高质量的网站。此外，应鼓励对网站进行系统性综述，以监测互联网出版物的准确性。
