Department of Urology, Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.
Urology. 2011 Nov;78(5):1051-6. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2011.06.050. Epub 2011 Sep 25.
Increasingly, patients seek medical information via the Internet, despite highly variable information quality. We sought to determine whether controversial urological topics are associated with decreased content quality or search characteristics.
We systematically searched the Internet for 5 noncontroversial (cryptorchidism, testicular torsion, urethral stricture, testicular cancers, renal cancers) and 5 controversial (disorders of sexual differentiation, circumcision, penile elongation, interstitial cystitis, testosterone therapy) conditions. Number of total hits, sponsored links, page owner and author, accreditation, updates, advertising, readability, and content quality were assessed for each topic. Content quality was determined on a 5-point scale for accuracy and completeness of 3 domains: diagnosis, natural history, and treatment.
In total, 100 websites were evaluated. Noncontroversial topics had more hits (1,610,000 vs 475,000) and more sponsored links (30% vs 10%) than controversial topics. Noncontroversial web pages were more likely to have government or medical owners (58% vs 30%, P = .009) than controversial web pages. Website quality was significantly different between noncontroversial and controversial topics. In regard to accuracy, noncontroversial topics had higher scores for diagnosis (4.6 vs 3.8, P <.0001), natural history (4.5 vs 3.2, P <.0001), and treatment (4.6 vs 3.3, P <.0001). Similarly, noncontroversial topics had higher completeness scores for diagnosis (3.8 vs 3.0, P = .001), natural history (3.7 vs 3.0, P = .003), and treatment (3.6 vs 3.0, P = .006).
Web pages dedicated to controversial urological topics have lower quality content in regard to diagnosis, natural history, and treatment. Such quality issues may contribute to ongoing public confusion and misinformation regarding these challenging topics.
尽管互联网上的医疗信息质量差异很大，但越来越多的患者仍通过互联网获取医学信息。本研究旨在确定有争议的泌尿科主题是否与内容质量或搜索特征的降低有关。
我们系统地在互联网上搜索了 5 个非争议性（隐睾、睾丸扭转、尿道狭窄、睾丸癌、肾癌）和 5 个有争议性（性别分化障碍、割礼、阴茎延长、间质性膀胱炎、睾丸激素治疗）的条件。评估了每个主题的总点击量、赞助链接、网页所有者和作者、认证、更新、广告、可读性和内容质量。内容质量是根据准确性和三个领域（诊断、自然病史和治疗）的完整性来评估的，分值为 5 分。
共评估了 100 个网站。非争议性主题的点击量（161 万次 vs 47.5 万次）和赞助链接（30% vs 10%）均多于争议性主题。非争议性网页的所有者更有可能是政府或医疗机构（58% vs 30%，P =.009），而非争议性网页。非争议性和争议性主题之间的网站质量存在显著差异。在准确性方面，非争议性主题的诊断（4.6 分 vs 3.8 分，P <.0001）、自然病史（4.5 分 vs 3.2 分，P <.0001）和治疗（4.6 分 vs 3.3 分，P <.0001）得分更高。同样，非争议性主题在诊断（3.8 分 vs 3.0 分，P =.001）、自然病史（3.7 分 vs 3.0 分，P =.003）和治疗（3.6 分 vs 3.0 分，P =.006）方面的完整性得分更高。
专门针对有争议的泌尿科主题的网页在诊断、自然病史和治疗方面的内容质量较低。这些质量问题可能导致公众对这些具有挑战性的主题持续感到困惑和误解。
