Wallace Center for Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health Research, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2021 Jan 21;16(1):e0240664. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240664. eCollection 2021.
In the United States, the internet is widely used to seek health information. Despite an estimated 18 million Google searches on abortion per year and the demonstrated importance of the abortion pill as an option for pregnancy termination, the top webpage search results for abortion pill searches, as well as the content and quality of those webpages, are not well understood.
We used Google's Custom Search Application Programming Interface (API) to identify the top 10 webpages presented for "abortion pill" searches on August 06, 2018. We developed a comprehensive, evidence-based Family Planning Webpage Quality Assessment Tool (FPWQAT), which was used to assess webpage quality for the five top webpages presenting text-based educational content.
Of the top webpages for "abortion pill" searches, a plannedparenthood.com page was the top result and scored highest on our assessment (81%), providing high-quality and useable information. The other four webpages, a Wikipedia.com page and three anti-abortion information webpages, scored much lower on our assessment (14%-43%). These four webpages had lower quality of information in less useable formats. The anti-abortion pages also presented a variety of disinformation about the abortion pill.
Both the lack of accurate clinical content on the majority of top webpages and the concerning disinformation they contained raise concerns about the quality of online abortion pill information, while underlining challenges posed by Google search results to informed choice for consumers. Healthcare providers and consumers must be informed of online abortion pill content that is not based in current clinical evidence, while advocates and policymakers should push for online information that is credible and useable. These changes are imperative given the importance of sound abortion pill information for reproductive decision-making at a time when in-person abortion services are further challenged in the US.
在美国，互联网被广泛用于获取健康信息。尽管每年估计有 1800 万次关于堕胎的谷歌搜索，并且堕胎药作为终止妊娠的一种选择已经得到证实，但对于堕胎药搜索的顶级网页搜索结果，以及这些网页的内容和质量，人们还了解甚少。
我们使用谷歌的自定义搜索应用程序编程接口（API）来识别 2018 年 8 月 6 日“堕胎药”搜索的前 10 个网页。我们开发了一个全面的、基于证据的计划生育网页质量评估工具（FPWQAT），用于评估呈现基于文本的教育内容的前五个网页的质量。
在“堕胎药”搜索的顶级网页中，plannedparenthood.com 页面是搜索结果的第一名，在我们的评估中得分最高（81%），提供了高质量且可用的信息。其他四个网页，包括一个 Wikipedia.com 页面和三个反堕胎信息网页，在我们的评估中得分要低得多（14%-43%）。这四个网页的信息质量较低，格式也不太可用。反堕胎页面还提供了各种关于堕胎药的错误信息。
大多数顶级网页缺乏准确的临床内容，而且其中包含的令人担忧的错误信息，这引发了人们对在线堕胎药信息质量的担忧，同时也突显了谷歌搜索结果对消费者知情选择所带来的挑战。医疗保健提供者和消费者必须了解不基于当前临床证据的在线堕胎药内容，而倡导者和政策制定者应该推动可信和可用的在线信息。鉴于在堕胎服务在美国进一步受到挑战的情况下，准确的堕胎药信息对生殖决策的重要性，这些变化是必要的。
