Quality evaluation of Chinese online chronic kidney information / 中国实用护理杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the quality of the chronic kidney information found on websites. Methods Three search engines were searched for relevant chronic kidney websites. The independent raters use HON code(The Health On Net Code of Conduct for medical and health Web sites, HON code) and DISCERN instrument to evaluate the chronic kidney websites in Chinese. Results A total of 18 websites were included into our study.The overall mean quality of HON code was 3.6±1.6.The overall mean quality of DISCERN instrument was 32.3 ± 10.8. In the research site, the number of sites built by nonprofits accounted for only 5.6%(1/18). Conclusions The information quality on chronic kidney found online was of poor.The main reason is health websites contain lots of advertisement,and it is rare that non-profit websites can provide medical information which is suitable for general public,the overall reliability is poor,Chinese health websites need to put efforts on developing the quality of health information.