The Quality and Content of Internet-Based Information on Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Requires Improvement: A Systematic Review.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the quality and content of internet-based information available for some of the most common orthopaedic sports medicine terms.

METHODS

A search of the PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane databases following PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses) guidelines was performed. All English-language literature published from 2010 to 2020 discussing information quality pertaining to orthopaedic sports medicine terms was included. Outcomes included the search engines used, number and type of websites evaluated, platform, and quality scoring metrics. Descriptive statistics are presented.

RESULTS

This review includes 21 studies. Of these, 3 evaluated both the upper and lower extremity. Twelve focused on either the upper or lower extremity, most commonly rotator cuff tears (3 of 12) and/or anterior cruciate ligament pathologies (7 of 12). The most common engines were Google (18 of 21), Bing (16 of 21), Yahoo (16 of 21), YouTube (3 of 21), Ask (3 of 21), and AOL (2 of 21). The average number of media files assessed per study was 87 ± 55. Website quality was assessed with DISCERN (7 of 21), Flesch-Kincaid (9 of 21), Health on the Net (7 of 21), and/or Benchmark (7 of 21) scores. YouTube was evaluated with Benchmark scores (1.74 ± 1.00). Image quality was reported in 2 studies and varied with search terminology.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of this systematic review suggest that physicians should improve the quality of online information and encourage patients to access credible sources when conducting their own research.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Doctors can and should play an active role in closing the gap between the level of health literacy of their patients and that of most common online resources.