Orthodontic Unit, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Int Orthod. 2023 Mar;21(1):100727. doi: 10.1016/j.ortho.2023.100727. Epub 2023 Jan 18.
The aim of the study was to investigate the degree to which the websites of orthodontists in Australia comply with the regulatory frameworks regarding healthcare advertising.
The websites of orthodontist practices in Australia were assessed against Section 133 of the National Law and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)'s guidelines pertaining to the advertising of regulated health services. Website content was assessed in relation to 5 domains regarding the provision of false and misleading information, the use of offers and inducement without clear terms and conditions, the use of patient testimonials, the creation of unrealistic expectation of benefit and the encouragement of the indiscriminate and unnecessary use of health services.
The websites of 166 orthodontist practices and 304 orthodontists satisfying inclusion/exclusion criteria were evaluated. Intra-rater agreement was high, ranging from 0.91 to 0.97. Most websites (80.7%) contravened the Law in one or more domains. The mean number of non-compliant domains per website was 2.2 (95% CI: 1.96 to 2.46). Information that was likely to create unrealistic expectations of orthodontic treatment (74.1%) was the domain most frequently breached with clinical information that only discussed the benefits of treatments contained in 64.5% of websites. Named commercial products were contained within 88.6% of the websites with links to commercial product manufacturers provided by 36.7%.
Compliance of orthodontist practices in Australia with ethical, legal and regulatory advertising requirements is lacking. Orthodontists must exercise greater diligence in ensuring that the ethical requirements of preserving patient safety are not jeopardised by the advertising of their healthcare services.
本研究旨在调查澳大利亚正畸医生的网站在多大程度上符合医疗保健广告的监管框架。
根据《国家法律》第 133 条和澳大利亚健康从业者监管局（AHPRA）关于监管卫生服务广告的准则，评估澳大利亚正畸医生实践网站。网站内容与提供虚假和误导性信息、使用无明确条款和条件的优惠和诱导、使用患者证明、创造不切实际的受益预期以及鼓励不加区分和不必要地使用卫生服务等 5 个领域有关。
评估了 166 家正畸医生实践和 304 名满足纳入/排除标准的正畸医生的网站。内部评估者之间的一致性很高，范围从 0.91 到 0.97。大多数网站（80.7%）在一个或多个领域违反了法律。每个网站不符合规定的领域平均数量为 2.2（95%CI：1.96 至 2.46）。可能产生不切实际的正畸治疗预期的信息（74.1%）是最常违反的领域，只有 64.5%的网站包含仅讨论治疗益处的临床信息。网站中包含 88.6%的命名商业产品，其中 36.7%的网站提供与商业产品制造商的链接。
澳大利亚正畸医生实践在遵守道德、法律和监管广告要求方面存在不足。正畸医生在宣传其医疗保健服务时，必须更加谨慎，确保不危及患者安全的道德要求。
