General Practice ward/ International Medical Center Ward, General Practice Medical Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
Lab of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Frontiers Science Center for Disease-Related Molecular Network, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.
PeerJ. 2024 May 24;12:e17264. doi: 10.7717/peerj.17264. eCollection 2024.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder (FGID) with heterogeneous clinical presentations. There are no clear testing parameters for its diagnosis, and the complex pathophysiology of IBS and the limited time that doctors have to spend with patients makes it difficult to adequately educate patients in the outpatient setting. An increased awareness of IBS means that patients are more likely to self-diagnose and self-manage IBS based on their own symptoms. These factors may make patients more likely to turn to Internet resources. Wikipedia is the most popular online encyclopedia among English-speaking users, with numerous validations. However, in Mandarin-speaking regions, the Baidu Encyclopedia is most commonly used. There have been no studies on the reliability, readability, and objectivity of IBS information on the two sites. This is an urgent issue as these platforms are accessed by approximately 1.45 billion people.
We compared the IBS content on Wikipedia (in English) and Baidu Baike (in Chinese), two online encyclopedias, in terms of reliability, readability, and objectivity.
The Baidu Encyclopedia (in Chinese) and Wikipedia (in English) were evaluated based on the Rome IV IBS definitions and diagnoses. All possible synonyms and derivatives for IBS and IBS-related FGIDs were screened and identified. Two gastroenterology experts evaluated the scores of articles for both sites using the DISCERN instrument, the Journal of the American Medical Association scoring system (JAMA), and the Global Quality Score (GQS).
Wikipedia scored higher overall with DISCERN ( < .0001), JAMA ( < .0001) and GQS ( < .05) than the Baidu Encyclopedia. Specifically, Wikipedia scored higher in DISCERN Section 1 ( < .0001), DISCERN Section 2 ( < .01), DISCERN Section 3 ( < .001), and the General DISCERN score ( < .0001) than the Baidu Encyclopedia. Both sites had low DISCERN Section 2 scores ( = .18). Wikipedia also had a larger percentage of high quality scores in total DISCERN, DISCERN Section 1, and DISCERN Section 3 ( < .0001, < .0001, < .0004, respectively, based on the above 3 (60%) rule).
Wikipedia provides more reliable, higher quality, and more objective IBS-related health information than the Baidu Encyclopedia. However, there should be improvements in the information quality for both sites. Medical professionals and institutions should collaborate with these online platforms to offer better health information for IBS.
肠易激综合征（IBS）是一种功能性胃肠道疾病（FGID），具有异质性的临床表现。目前尚无明确的诊断测试参数，而 IBS 的复杂病理生理学以及医生与患者相处的时间有限，使得医生难以在门诊环境中充分教育患者。人们对 IBS 的认识不断提高，这意味着患者更有可能根据自己的症状自我诊断和自我管理 IBS。这些因素可能使患者更倾向于转向互联网资源。维基百科是英语使用者中最受欢迎的在线百科全书，具有众多验证。然而，在华语地区，最常使用的是百度百科。目前还没有关于这两个网站上 IBS 信息的可靠性、可读性和客观性的研究。由于这两个平台大约有 14.5 亿人访问，因此这是一个紧迫的问题。
我们比较了维基百科（英文版）和百度百科（中文版）这两个在线百科全书在可靠性、可读性和客观性方面的 IBS 内容。
根据罗马 IV IBS 定义和诊断标准，评估了百度百科（中文版）和维基百科（英文版）。筛选并确定了 IBS 和 IBS 相关 FGID 的所有可能同义词和派生词。两位胃肠病学专家使用 DISCERN 工具、《美国医学会杂志》评分系统（JAMA）和全球质量评分（GQS）对两个网站的文章评分进行评估。
维基百科在 DISCERN（<0.0001）、JAMA（<0.0001）和 GQS（<0.05）方面的总体得分均高于百度百科。具体而言，维基百科在 DISCERN 第 1 节（<0.0001）、DISCERN 第 2 节（<0.01）、DISCERN 第 3 节（<0.001）和一般 DISCERN 评分（<0.0001）方面的得分均高于百度百科。两个网站的 DISCERN 第 2 节得分均较低（=0.18）。维基百科在总 DISCERN、DISCERN 第 1 节和 DISCERN 第 3 节的高质量评分比例也更大（<0.0001、<0.0001、<0.0004，分别基于上述 3 个（60%）规则）。
与百度百科相比，维基百科提供了更可靠、更高质量、更客观的 IBS 相关健康信息。然而，这两个网站的信息质量都应该有所提高。医学专业人员和机构应与这些在线平台合作，为 IBS 提供更好的健康信息。
