Thompson Andrew E, Graydon Sara L
Department of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, Rheumatology Centre, St. Joseph's Health Care, 268 Grosvenor Street, PO Box 5777, London, ON, Canada, N6A 4V2.
J Rheumatol. 2009 Jan;36(1):41-9. doi: 10.3899/jrheum.080430.
With continuing use of the Internet, rheumatologists are referring patients to various websites to gain information about medications and diseases. Our goal was to develop and evaluate a Medication Website Assessment Tool (MWAT) for use by health professionals, and to explore the overall quality of methotrexate information presented on common English-language websites.
Identification of websites was performed using a search strategy on the search engine Google. The first 250 hits were screened. Inclusion criteria included those English-language websites from authoritative sources, trusted medical, physicians', and common health-related websites. Websites from pharmaceutical companies, online pharmacies, and where the purpose seemed to be primarily advertisements were also included. Product monographs or technical-based web pages and web pages where the information was clearly directed at patients with cancer were excluded. Two reviewers independently scored each included web page for completeness and accuracy, format, readability, reliability, and credibility. An overall ranking was provided for each methotrexate information page.
Twenty-eight web pages were included in the analysis. The average score for completeness and accuracy was 15.48+/-3.70 (maximum 24) with 10 out of 28 pages scoring 18 (75%) or higher. The average format score was 6.00+/-1.46 (maximum 8). The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level revealed an average grade level of 10.07+/-1.84, with 5 out of 28 websites written at a reading level less than grade 8; however, no web page scored at a grade 5 to 6 level. An overall ranking was calculated identifying 8 web pages as appropriate sources of accurate and reliable methotrexate information.
With the enormous amount of information available on the Internet, it is important to direct patients to web pages that are complete, accurate, readable, and credible sources of information. We identified web pages that may serve the interests of both rheumatologists and patients.
随着互联网的持续使用，风湿病学家会将患者推荐至各类网站，以获取有关药物和疾病的信息。我们的目标是开发并评估一种供医疗专业人员使用的药物网站评估工具（MWAT），并探究常见英文网站上所呈现的甲氨蝶呤信息的整体质量。
使用搜索引擎谷歌上的搜索策略来识别网站。对前250个搜索结果进行筛选。纳入标准包括来自权威来源、可信的医学、医师以及常见健康相关网站的英文网站。来自制药公司、在线药房以及目的似乎主要是广告的网站也包括在内。排除产品说明书或基于技术的网页以及信息明显针对癌症患者的网页。两名评审员独立对每个纳入的网页在完整性和准确性、格式、可读性、可靠性和可信度方面进行评分。为每个甲氨蝶呤信息页面提供一个总体排名。
分析纳入了28个网页。完整性和准确性的平均得分为15.48±3.70（满分24分），28个页面中有10个得分18分（75%）或更高。格式平均得分为6.00±1.46（满分8分）。弗莱什-金凯德年级水平显示平均年级水平为10.07±1.84，28个网站中有5个的阅读水平低于8年级；然而，没有网页的评分处于5至6年级水平。计算得出一个总体排名，确定8个网页为准确可靠的甲氨蝶呤信息的合适来源。
鉴于互联网上可获取的信息量巨大，引导患者访问完整、准确、可读且可信的信息来源网页非常重要。我们识别出了可能符合风湿病学家和患者双方利益的网页。
