Lim Chloe Ah-Ryung, Ingledew Paris-Ann
MD Undergraduate Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Radiation Oncology, BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver Centre, BC, Canada.
Neurooncol Pract. 2020 Nov 30;8(2):129-136. doi: 10.1093/nop/npaa082. eCollection 2021 Apr.
Meningiomas are the most common primary central nervous system tumors and patients face difficulty evaluating resources available online. The purpose of this study is to systematically evaluate the educational resources available for patients seeking meningioma information on the Internet.
A total of 127 meningioma websites were identified by inputting the term "meningioma" on Google and two meta-search engines. A structured rating tool developed by our research group was applied to top 100 websites to evaluate with respect to accountability, interactivity, readability, and content quality. Responses to general and personal patient questions were evaluated for promptness, accuracy, and completeness. The frequency of various social media account types was analyzed.
Of 100 websites, only 38% disclosed authorship, and 32% cited sources. Sixty-two percent did not state date of creation or modification, and 32% provided last update less than 2 years ago. Websites most often discussed the definition (99%), symptoms (97%), and treatment (96%). Prevention (8%) and prognosis (47%) were most often not covered. Only 3% of websites demonstrated recommended reading level for general population. Of 84 websites contacted, 42 responded, 32 within 1 day.
Meningioma information is readily available online, but quality varies. Sites often lack markers for accountability, and content may be difficult to comprehend. Information on specific topics are often not available for patients. Physicians can direct meningioma patients to appropriate reliable online resources depicted in this study. Furthermore, future web developers can address the current gaps to design reliable online resources.
脑膜瘤是最常见的原发性中枢神经系统肿瘤，患者在评估网上可得资源时面临困难。本研究的目的是系统评估互联网上可供寻求脑膜瘤信息的患者使用的教育资源。
通过在谷歌和两个元搜索引擎上输入“脑膜瘤”一词，共识别出127个脑膜瘤网站。我们研究小组开发的一种结构化评级工具应用于排名前100的网站，以评估其问责性、交互性、可读性和内容质量。评估对一般患者问题和个人患者问题的回复的及时性、准确性和完整性。分析各种社交媒体账户类型的频率。
在100个网站中，只有38%披露了作者身份，32%引用了来源。62%未注明创建或修改日期，32%的网站最后一次更新时间在2年以内。网站最常讨论的内容是定义（99%）、症状（97%）和治疗（96%）。预防（8%）和预后（47%）最常未被涵盖。只有3%的网站标明了普通人群的推荐阅读水平。在联系的84个网站中，42个做出了回应，其中32个在1天内回复。
脑膜瘤信息在网上很容易获取，但质量参差不齐。网站往往缺乏问责标志，内容可能难以理解。患者通常无法获取特定主题的信息。医生可以将脑膜瘤患者引导至本研究中描述的合适可靠的在线资源。此外，未来的网站开发者可以弥补当前的差距，设计出可靠的在线资源。
