[An evaluation of the quality of health web pages using a validated questionnaire].

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the quality of general health information in Spanish language web pages, and the official Regional Services web pages from the different Autonomous Regions.

DESIGN

It is a cross-sectional study. We have used a previously validated questionnaire to study the present state of the health information on Internet for a lay-user point of view.

PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS

By mean of PageRank (Google®), we obtained a group of webs, including a total of 65 health web pages. We applied some exclusion criteria, and finally obtained a total of 36 webs. We also analyzed the official web pages from the different Health Services in Spain (19 webs), making a total of 54 health web pages.

RESULTS

In the light of our data, we observed that, the quality of the general information health web pages was generally rather low, especially regarding the information quality. Not one page reached the maximum score (19 points). The mean score of the web pages was of 9.8±2.8.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, to avoid the problems arising from the lack of quality, health professionals should design advertising campaigns and other media to teach the lay-user how to evaluate the information quality.