scholarly journals Study on health hazards through medicines purchased on the Internet: a cross-sectional investigation of the quality of anti-obesity medicines containing crude drugs as active ingredients

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoko Yoshida ◽  
Midori Numano ◽  
Yoko Nagasaka ◽  
Kaori Ueda ◽  
Hirohito Tsuboi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Hazards ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Active Ingredients ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Crude Drugs

scholarly journals Effect of Social Networking Sites on the Quality of Life of College Students: A Cross-Sectional Study from a City in North India

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Neeru Saini ◽  
Garima Sangwan ◽  
Madhur Verma ◽  
Adarsh Kohli ◽  
Manmeet Kaur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
North India ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Severe Stress ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
College Going

Introduction. With the advent and extensive use of the Internet and smartphones, social networking has become a pervasive part of human interaction. The use of these social networking sites or the Internet affects the physical, mental, and spiritual health of the people. Hence, there is need to understand how the time spent on social networking is affecting the quality of life (QOL) as a whole, especially among college-going students who are most likely users of social networking sites (18–21 years). Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 220 college-going students (18–21 years) in Chandigarh in 2012. The data were collected using a pretested self-administered questionnaire, adapted from Young’s Internet usage questionnaire. Appropriate statistical analysis was done. Results. Almost all (98%) of the respondents use the Internet. As compared to nondaily users of social networking sites, daily users were better able to handle stress related to (1) relationships (moderate to severe stress among daily users vs. nondaily users, 15.2% vs. 30.5%) and (2) work (moderate to severe stress among daily users vs. nondaily users, 18.2% vs. 35.4%). The daily users of social networking sites feel significantly more satisfied with their classmates, the way they handle the problems, their physical appearance, and their accomplishments in their life. Conclusion. Social networking sites are steadily penetrating in the lives of adolescents in India. The advantages on quality of life for daily users of social networking sites versus nondaily users are enormous. Also currently, Internet use might not have reached the levels where it embarks on the existing state of health; therefore, continuous and critical observation of the changing trends is warranted.

scholarly journals Assessment of quality of information available over the internet about vegan diet

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 1142-1152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Genevieve El Jassar ◽  
Isobel Nadia El Jassar ◽  
Evangelos I. Kritsotakis
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Vegan Diet ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Quality Of Information ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Flesch Reading Ease ◽  
Written Information

Purpose This paper aims to assess the quality of health information available to patients seeking online advice about the vegan diet. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional sample of patient-oriented websites was selected by searching for “Vegan diet” in the three most popular search engines. The first 50 websites from each search were examined. Quality of information was assessed using the DISCERN instrument, a questionnaire tool designed to judge the quality of written information on treatment choices. Readability was determined with the Flesch Reading Ease score (FRES) and Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL). Relevance to health and disease was assessed by counting the appearances of ten related keywords, generated by searching the query term “Vegan diet” into PubMed and recording the top ten health-related words. Findings Of 150 websites retrieved, 67 (44.7 per cent) met inclusion criteria. Of these, 42 (62.7 per cent) were non-pharmaceutical commercial, 7 (10.4 per cent) institutional, 6 (9.0 per cent) magazines or newspapers, 4 (6.0 per cent) support websites, 4 (6.0 per cent) charitable websites, 2 (3.0 per cent) encyclopedias and 2 (3.0 per cent) personal blogs. The overall DISCERN rating of the websites was fair (mean 41.6 ± 15.4 on an 80-point scale), but nearly half (31/67) of the websites were assessed as having “poor” or “very poor” quality of information. FRES and FKGL readability indices met the recommended standards on average (means 63.3 ± 9.6 and 6.6 ± 1.7, respectively), but did not correlate with high DISCERN ratings. Analysis of variance on DISCERN scores (F(6,60) = 6.536, p < 0.001) and FRES (F(6,60) = 2.733, p = 0.021) yielded significant variation according to website source type. Originality/value Quality standards of health information available on the internet about the vegan diet vary greatly. Patients are at risk of exposure to low quality and potentially misleading information over the internet and should be consulting dietitians or physicians to avoid being misled.

Home (Page) Style

2011 ◽  
pp. 1591-1606
Author(s):  
Kevin Esterling ◽  
David M.J. Lazer ◽  
Michael A. Neblo
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Model Specification ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Grading Scale ◽  
Successful Innovation

To date, research on e-government has devoted relatively little attention to how legislators use the Internet to enhance the representative function. In this paper, we seek to explain statistically the variation in the quality of Web sites among members of the US Congress. The dependent variable for the preliminary analysis is an ordered categorical rating of the Quality of each member’s Web site on a 5-point grading scale ranging from A to F. The model specification is derived from the political science literature on Congress, including measures of electoral situation, the local situation, and the intra-institutional situation. The cross sectional findings suggest that shorter tenure and closer electoral margin both independently contribute to successful innovation; members appear to adopt new technologies when constituents are connected to the Internet; and members representing districts of lower socio-economic status tend to have better quality Web sites.

Quality of smoking cessation information on the Internet: a cross‐sectional survey study

2002 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 649-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gbogboade Ademiluyi ◽  
Charlotte E. Rees ◽  
Charlotte E. Sheard
Keyword(s):  
Smoking Cessation ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional

scholarly journals Infertility information on the World Wide Web: a cross-sectional survey of quality of infertility information on the internet in the UK

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 1520-1525 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. V. Marriott ◽  
P. Stec ◽  
T. El-Toukhy ◽  
Y. Khalaf ◽  
P. Braude ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
World Wide ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The World ◽  
The Uk

scholarly journals Quality Information about Uterine Fibroids on the Internet

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (09) ◽  
pp. 547-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Melo ◽  
Pedro Jallad ◽  
Luiz Brito
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Uterine Fibroids ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Search Term ◽  
Median Score ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Lay Women ◽  
Test Correlation

Objective There are no published studies analyzing the quality of the information for lay women on the Internet regarding uterine fibroids. The accuracy of the provided material is also unknown. Thus, we have performed a cross-sectional study with 381 websites in the English and Brazilian Portuguese languages between May and December 2017. Methods Two investigators performed the analysis, and the Cohen kappa coefficient was calculated to analyze the agreement between them. Search terms (uterine fibroids and derivatives) in the English and Brazilian Portuguese languages were used. The accuracy was analyzed by a 10-item checklist created based on the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) consensuses about uterine fibroids. The item–test correlation and the intraclass coefficient were performed in the 16 questions from the DISCERN instrument, which was designed to measure the quality of health information on the Internet. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) measurements were performed for the independent variables and the DISCERN/accuracy scores. Results Google was the most used search engine, and uterine fibroid was the search term that generated most of the analyzed material. The median score for accuracy in all websites was 5 out of 10, and the median score of the DISCERN instrument was 38 out of 80. The top-scoring sites in the English language were derived from scientific organizations and federal governments, and they regarded the DISCERN score (The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists [ACOG], the Food and Drug Administration [FDA]) and the accuracy criteria (NIH, and FDA). On the other hand, in the Brazilian Portuguese language, the highest scores in both instruments were from magazines or physician's blogs. The Cronbach α test showed a higher correlation (0.77–0.79) between the sites and DISCERN; however, the item–test correlation varied from 0.39 to 0.56. Conclusion There is a need to improve the quality of the information regarding uterine fibroids for lay women.

Quality of Red Reflex Teaching Videos on the Internet: Cross-Sectional Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie Dodds ◽  
Andrew Blaikie ◽  
Sirjhun Patel
Keyword(s):  
Search Engine ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Video Quality ◽  
Scoring Systems ◽  
Quality Score ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Total Quality ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Ranking Position

BACKGROUND The importance of red reflex testing as part of neonatal screening is recognised worldwide. The technique is ideally suited to online video-based instruction. The quality of online teaching material is however unknown OBJECTIVE We aim to objectively score the quality of red reflex demonstration videos in order to determine their pedagogical effectiveness and to assess the relationship between search engine ranking and quality. METHODS An internet search was performed on 12th February 2020 using keywords related to red reflex examination on search engine platforms YouTube, Google and DuckDuckGo. Video characteristics were recorded and popularity determined by calculating a Video Power Index (VPI) score. The videos were assessed by two medical students and two ophthalmologists using scoring systems: Red Reflex Specific (RRS), Understandability & Attractiveness (U&A), Reliability (JAMA), and Global Quality Score (GQS). A Total Quality Score (TQS) was created from RRS, U&A and JAMA scores as a measure of overall quality. Videos were categorised by source and in terms of usefulness. Correlations between audience interaction parameters and video quality alongside ranking position on the three search engines were investigated using Spearman’s rho. RESULTS Of the 625 videos screened, 14 were eligible for inclusion. Overall, videos had a mean TQS of 24.3/50 (range: 9 – 41) with six videos considered “educationally useful” based on the GQS. The main video source was physicians (43%), with videos uploaded by academics being of greatest overall quality (P = .023). There was a positive correlation between TQS and ranking position of videos using Google (rs= 0.569, P = .034) but not with other platforms. CONCLUSIONS The limited red reflex training videos currently available on the internet are generally poor and of variable quality. We recommend Google as a suitable platform to search for red reflex videos of better quality. These results may play a role in ensuring video teaching is performed optimally and highlight the need for improved access worldwide to videos of greater accuracy and reliability.

scholarly journals Analgesic drugs: What quality of information is present on the Internet?

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. e25810817157
Author(s):  
Ana Amélia Rangel Ribeiro ◽  
Gustavo Leite Magalhães de Melo ◽  
Merielle de Souza Costa ◽  
Miriam Furtado de Oliveira Lima ◽  
Renan da Silva Gianoti Torres ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Options ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Scientific Basis ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Self Medication ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
Analgesic Drugs

The internet enables the search for several subject types, including health and drug utilization. These information are spread generally without reliability and scientific basis, that can encourage self-medication and indiscriminate medicine use. This was a cross-sectional study, carried out through application of tools that evaluated the quality of global health information and the specific content about analgesic drugs on 98 Brazilian websites. Among the most cited drugs on websites, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (83.67 %), acetaminophen (47.96 %) and opioids (47.96 %) stood out. All websites described pharmacological treatment options for pain, however, most websites did not mention any adverse reactions or contraindications for painkillers use. Information on opioid addiction and tolerance risk was present only in 18.37 % of websites. Considering all the indicators evaluated, no website was considered to be of good quality, even those with a quality certification seal. These results showed important shortcomings on health and drugs information published on internet, which can lead to analgesics inappropriate use, adverse effects and even intoxications events. This reinforces the need to control this information and to adopt minimum quality criteria for the websites, aiming to minimize health risks, drug irrational use and to contribute for lay public’s safety.

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