Evaluation of Brazilian web site information on allergic rhinitis.

UNLABELLED

Nowadays, the World Wide Web (Internet) is an information source for non-experts and physicians.

AIM

To evaluate, based on ethical principles, Brazilian web sites information about "allergic rhinitis". Allergic rhinitis is a very common disease, effecting more than 10% of the general population, leading to decrease in quality of life.

STUDY DESIGN

Review.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

We performed the evaluation of 173 Brazilian web sites, which were obtained from four search engines (Google, Yahoo, AltaVista and Radar Uol). The web sites were evaluated according to the Manual of Ethical Principles, Regional Council of Medicine of the state of Sao Paulo (CREMESP), regarding transparency, honesty, quality, privacy, medical ethics, informed consent, responsibility and origin.

RESULTS

Among the analyzed web sites, 149 (86.1%) were not in accordance with the Manual of Ethical Principles of Regional Council of Medicine of the state of Sao Paulo (CREMESP). According to the analyzed items, the irregularities that were found were quality (84.4%), privacy (46.2%), honesty (18.5%), informed consent (15.6%), responsibility and origin (13.9%), transparency (12.1%), medical ethics (2.3%). There was inaccurate information in 24.3% of the analyzed sites.

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of the websites regarding allergic rhinitis are not in accordance with the ethical principles of CREMESP. In general, the quality of a great part of the Brazilian web sites that address "allergic rhinitis", and the quality of the information disseminated by them, are insufficient to satisfy doctors and patients.