Quality of Internet information related to the Mediterranean diet

Public Health Nutrition

Kazumi Saito¹  Chika Horikawa¹  Mihoko Asumi¹  Yoko Yachi¹  Aki Saito¹  Reiko Hirasawa¹  Hitoshi Shimano¹  Yoriko Heianza¹  Yoko Ibe¹  Hirohito Sone¹  Kazuo Kondo¹  Satoru Kodama¹ 

关键词: Internet;    Quality of information;    Mediterranean diet;    Readability;   

DOI  :  10.1017/S1368980011002345

学科分类：卫生学

来源: Cambridge University Press

【 摘 要 】

ObjectiveThe present study aimed to evaluate the quality of Internet information on the Mediterranean diet and to determine the relationship between the quality of information and the website source.DesignWebsite sources were categorized as institutional, pharmaceutical, non-pharmaceutical commercial, charitable, support and alternative medicine. Content quality was evaluated using the DISCERN rating instrument, the Health On the Net Foundation's (HON) code principles, and Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks. Readability was graded by the Flesch Reading Ease score and Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level score.SettingThe phrase ‘Mediterranean diet’ was entered as a search term into the six most commonly used English-language search engines.SubjectsThe first thirty websites forthcoming by each engine were examined.ResultsOf the 180 websites identified, thirty-two met our inclusion criteria. Distribution of the website sources was: institutional, n 8 (25 %); non-pharmaceutical commercial, n 12 (38 %); and support, n 12 (38 %). As evaluated by the DISCERN, thirty-one of the thirty-two websites were rated as fair to very poor. Non-pharmaceutical commercial sites scored significantly lower than institutional and support sites (P = 0·002). The mean Flesch Reading Ease score and mean Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level were 55·9 (fairly difficult) and 7·2, respectively. The Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level score determines the difficulty of material by measuring the length of words and sentences and converting the results into a grade level ranging from 0 to 12 (US grade level).ConclusionsDue to the poor quality of website information on the Mediterranean diet, patients or consumers who are interested in the Mediterranean diet should get advice from physicians or dietitians.

【 授权许可】

Unknown