University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Discipline of Psychiatry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Psychooncology. 2021 Mar;30(3):400-407. doi: 10.1002/pon.5591. Epub 2021 Jan 5.
Psychiatric comorbidities are common among cancer patients. However, little is known about the quality of online information regarding these conditions. This study uses a validated tool to systematically determine the strengths and limitations of websites addressing depression in cancer patients.
The term "depression in cancer patients" was searched online using the search engines Google, Yippy, and Dogpile. A set of predetermined inclusion/exclusion criteria was applied to all search results, which yielded 48 websites for inclusion. A validated rating tool was used to score the websites based on the six domains of Affiliation, Accountability, Interactivity, Structure & Organization, Readability, and Content Quality. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Of the 48 websites evaluated, 50% were commercial. 63% of websites identified authorship, 54% cited reliable sources, 37% provided links, and 38% were updated within the last 2 years. 94% of websites featured a search engine and 60% had at least four structural tools. Average readability was at a grade 12.3 level using the Flesch-Kincaid scale and 11.3 using the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index. The most completely and accurately covered topics of depression were symptoms and treatment-83% and 73% respectively. Its prevention and prognosis were not covered by any of the websites.
A validated rating tool was applied to evaluate the quality of online information for depression in cancer patients. Website accountability was poor, readability was often at a level that is too difficult for the lay audience, and the topics of prevention and prognosis were seldom covered.
精神疾病共病在癌症患者中很常见。然而，对于这些疾病的在线信息质量知之甚少。本研究使用经过验证的工具，系统地确定了针对癌症患者抑郁问题的网站的优势和局限性。
使用搜索引擎 Google、Yippy 和 Dogpile 在线搜索“癌症患者中的抑郁”一词。对所有搜索结果应用一套预先设定的纳入/排除标准，得出 48 个符合纳入条件的网站。使用经过验证的评分工具，根据隶属关系、问责制、交互性、结构与组织、可读性和内容质量六个方面对网站进行评分。使用描述性统计方法对结果进行分析。
在所评估的 48 个网站中，有 50%是商业性的。63%的网站确定了作者身份，54%引用了可靠的来源，37%提供了链接，38%在过去 2 年内进行了更新。94%的网站都有搜索引擎，60%的网站至少有四个结构工具。使用 Flesch-Kincaid 量表的平均可读性为 12.3 级，使用 Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index 的平均可读性为 11.3 级。网站对抑郁症状和治疗这两个话题的覆盖最为全面和准确，分别为 83%和 73%。网站没有涵盖预防和预后这两个话题。
本研究使用经过验证的评分工具评估了癌症患者抑郁问题在线信息的质量。网站的问责制较差，可读性通常对普通受众来说过于困难，且很少涵盖预防和预后这两个话题。
