Nădășan Valentin, Kasza Dalma, Kiss Konrád-Ottó, Maior David, Mărușteri Marius
Hygiene Department, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science, and Technology of Targu Mures, Romania.
Neurology Clinic II, County Emergency Clinical Hospital of Targu Mures, Romania.
J Crit Care Med (Targu Mures). 2024 Jan 30;10(1):85-95. doi: 10.2478/jccm-2024-0011. eCollection 2024 Jan.
Healthcare-associated infections have a significant impact on public health, and many patients and their next-of-kin are seeking information on the internet. The study aimed to assess the quality of online written content about healthcare-associated infections available in English, Romanian, and Hungarian languages.
The study sample included 75 websites, 25 for each language subgroup. The assessment involved examining the general characteristics, adherence to established credibility criteria, and the completeness and accuracy of informational content. The evaluation was conducted using a topic-specific, evidence-based benchmark. Two evaluators independently graded completeness and accuracy; scores were recorded on a scale from 0 to 10. A comparative analysis of websites was performed, considering pertinent characteristics, and potential factors influencing information quality were subjected to testing. The statistical significance was set at 0.05.
For the overall study sample, the average credibility, completeness, and accuracy scores were 5.1 (SD 1.7), 2.4 (SD 1.5), and 5.9 (SD 1.0), respectively. Pairwise comparison tests revealed that English websites rated significantly higher than Romanian and Hungarian websites on all three quality measures (P<0.05). Website specialization, ownership, and main goal were not associated with credibility or content ratings. However, conventional medicine websites consistently scored higher than alternative medicine and other websites across all three information quality measures (P<0.05). Credibility scores were positively but weakly correlated with completeness (rho=0.273; P=0.0176) and accuracy scores (rho=0.365; P=0.0016).
The overall quality ratings of information about healthcare-associated infections on English, Romanian, and Hungarian websites ranged from intermediate to low. The description of information regarding the symptoms and prevention of healthcare-associated infections was notably unsatisfactory. The study identified website characteristics possibly associated with higher-quality online sources about healthcare-associated infections, but additional research is needed to establish robust evidence.
医疗保健相关感染对公众健康有重大影响，许多患者及其近亲在互联网上寻求相关信息。本研究旨在评估以英语、罗马尼亚语和匈牙利语提供的有关医疗保健相关感染的在线书面内容的质量。
研究样本包括75个网站，每个语言子组各25个。评估内容包括检查网站的一般特征、是否符合既定的可信度标准以及信息内容的完整性和准确性。评估采用特定主题、基于证据的基准进行。两名评估人员独立对完整性和准确性进行评分；分数记录在0至10分的范围内。对网站进行了比较分析，考虑了相关特征，并对影响信息质量的潜在因素进行了测试。统计学显著性设定为0.05。
对于整个研究样本，平均可信度、完整性和准确性得分分别为5.1（标准差1.7）、2.4（标准差1.5）和5.9（标准差1.0）。两两比较测试显示，在所有三项质量指标上，英语网站的评分均显著高于罗马尼亚语和匈牙利语网站（P<0.05）。网站的专业性、所有权和主要目标与可信度或内容评分无关。然而，在所有三项信息质量指标上，传统医学网站的得分始终高于替代医学网站和其他网站（P<0.05）。可信度得分与完整性（rho=0.273；P=0.0176）和准确性得分（rho=0.365；P=0.0016）呈正相关但较弱。
英语、罗马尼亚语和匈牙利语网站上有关医疗保健相关感染的信息总体质量评级从中等到较低。关于医疗保健相关感染的症状和预防的信息描述尤其不尽人意。该研究确定了可能与高质量的医疗保健相关感染在线资源相关的网站特征，但需要更多研究来建立有力的证据。
