Division of STD Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA.
Sex Transm Dis. 2011 Apr;38(4):334-8. doi: 10.1097/OLQ.0b013e3181fe64f2.
Although the Internet is one of the most commonly accessed resources for health information, finding information on local sexual health services, such as sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing, can be challenging. Recognizing that most quests for online health information begin with search engines, the purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the extent to which online information about local STD/HIV testing services can be found using Google.
Queries on STD and HIV testing services were executed in Google for 6 geographically unique locations across the United States. The first 3 websites that resulted from each query were coded for the following characteristics: (1) relevancy to the search topic, (2) domain and purpose, (3) rank in Google results, and (4) content.
Websites hosted at .com (57.3%), .org (25.7%), and .gov (10.5%) domains were retrieved most frequently. Roughly half of all websites (n = 376) provided information relevant to the query, and about three-quarters (77.0%) of all queries yielded at least 1 relevant website within the first 3 results. Searches for larger cities were more likely to yield relevant results compared with smaller cities (odds ratio [OR] = 10.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 5.6, 17.9). On comparison with .com domains, .gov (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.4, 5.6) and .org domains (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.7, 4.8) were more likely to provide information of the location to get tested.
Ease of online access to information about sexual health services varies by search topic and locale. Sexual health service providers must optimize their website placement so as to reach a greater proportion of the sexually active population who use web search engines.
尽管互联网是人们获取健康信息最常用的资源之一，但要找到当地性健康服务（如性传播疾病（STD）检测）的信息却颇具挑战性。鉴于大多数人在网上查询健康信息时都会首选搜索引擎，本探索性研究旨在调查通过谷歌搜索能在多大程度上找到有关当地 STD/艾滋病病毒检测服务的在线信息。
在美国六个地理位置独特的地区，我们在谷歌上执行了有关 STD 和 HIV 检测服务的查询。从每个查询中获得的前 3 个网站按以下特征进行编码：（1）与搜索主题的相关性，（2）域名和目的，（3）在谷歌搜索结果中的排名，以及（4）内容。
检索到的网站主要来自.com（57.3%）、.org（25.7%）和.gov（10.5%）域名。大约一半的网站（n = 376）提供了与查询相关的信息，而且在前三页结果中，大约四分之三（77.0%）的查询至少能找到一个相关网站。与较小城市相比，搜索较大城市的查询更有可能得到相关结果（比值比[OR] = 10.0，95%置信区间[CI] = 5.6，17.9）。与.com 域名相比，.gov（OR = 2.9，95% CI = 1.4，5.6）和.org 域名（OR = 2.9，95% CI = 1.7，4.8）更有可能提供到何处接受检测的信息。
在线获取性健康服务信息的便利性因搜索主题和地点而异。性健康服务提供者必须优化其网站定位，以便让更多使用网络搜索引擎的活跃人群了解到其信息。
