Assessment of the Quality of Postherpetic Neuralgia Related Korean Internet Sites

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: There is no assessment of internet sites that carry information on chronic pain disease. So we assessed the quality of information about postherpetic neuralgia available on Korean internet sites. METHODS: The keywords 'postherpetic neuralgia', 'herpes zoster, neuropathic pain', 'herpes zoster, pain', 'herpes zoster' were searched in Korean on four search engines in Korea between the 1st to the 15th of May, 2009. We evaluated the outcome on two factors; the aspect of the contents which is subdivided into two categories, the content and authorship, and the technical aspect including web design, and efficiency. RESULTS: A total of 26 internet sites were found. Among these sites, 6 (23%) informed by anesthesiologist. The average score of the 26 internet sites was only 37.4 +/- 20.1 out of a total of 100. A mean score of the contents was 13.3 +/- 8.3 out of 40 points, the authorship was 10.0 +/- 6.7 out of 20 points, the design was 9.2 +/- 5.3 out of 20 points, the efficiency was 6.8 +/- 4.3 out of 20 points. When comparing the score between anesthesiologist and non-anesthesiologist, the contents was 18.7 +/- 7.4 vs. 11.7 +/- 7.9, the authorship was 13.4 +/- 4.7 vs. 9.0 +/- 6.8, the design was 12.5 +/- 4.2 vs. 8.3 +/- 5.2 and the efficiency was 6.8 +/- 4.5 vs. 4.3 +/- 4.0 (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for more accurate information about postherpetic neuralgia on the Korean internet by anesthesiologists.