Pediatric Cancer Information on the Internet: A Comparative Study of the Websites Quality in English and Spanish Languages

The quality of the health information presented on the Internet is a public health problem, anyone can spread information even if it is false. One factor that influences the quality is the language in which it is presented. It is known that 85% of cancer patients search about their disease, and it i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of consumer health on the Internet 2022-10, Vol.26 (4), p.410-422
Main Authors: Cuan-Baltazar, José Y., Muñoz-Pérez, María J., Soto-Vega, Elena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Benchmarks
Cancer
Comparative studies
Consumer health information
Criteria
English language
Internet
Languages
pediatric cancer
Pediatrics
Public health
Quality assessment
quality information
Search engines
Websites
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The quality of the health information presented on the Internet is a public health problem, anyone can spread information even if it is false. One factor that influences the quality is the language in which it is presented. It is known that 85% of cancer patients search about their disease, and it influences the decisions they would take concerning their treatment. Spanish speakers are the second largest population after Mandarin Chinese, but the main scientific and medical information is published in English. The aim of this study was to compare the quality of pediatric cancer information on the Internet provided in English and Spanish languages. A Google chrome search was performed in both languages using the words "children cancer." Three different validated tools to assess the quality of the information were used (JAMA benchmarks, DISCERN and HONcode). For all the tools used, the information in English was of better quality than Spanish information. We found a significant difference between the DISCERN and JAMA benchmark. Only 26.74% of the English and 3.57% of the Spanish websites fit all the DISCERN criteria and 25 % of the English and 13.39% of the Spanish websites fit the 4 JAMA criteria. The HONcode was no different between both languages. The health institutions should verify the health information presented on the Internet and issue recommendations which are the best sites to use.
ISSN:1539-8285
1539-8293
DOI:10.1080/15398285.2022.2126641