Author:

• Javier Sanz-Valero - Sanz-Valero J - Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana - Universidad de Alicante - <javier.sanz@ua.es>

Co-author(s):

• Rocío Guardiola-Wanden-Berghe - Guardiola-Wanden-Berghe, R. - Universidad de Alicante - <rochi_gw@hotmail.com>
• Carmina Wanden-Berghe - Wanden-Berghe, C. - Universidad CEU-Cardenal Herrera - <carminaw@telefonica.net>

Thematic Area:

Informação e Comunicação em Saúde

Abstract:

Aim: To study how the documentary and content quality of Websites concerning eating disorders has been assessed.
Method: Systematic review of articles from peer-reviewed journals, studying the complete texts in all cases. The Descriptors selected were: “Eating Disorders” and “Internet”.
Descriptive analysis was performed for the variables studied, and Fisher’s Exact test was used to analyze the presence of a linear relationship between qualitative variables.
Results: Of the 7 studies reviewed, 5 (71.42%) focused on content criteria and 2 (28.57%) examined both content and documentary criteria.
Documentary quality was evaluated using two assessment instruments developed by two of the authors, comprising a set of 20 different variables, 5 of which were common to both studies (observed percentage agreement 25%). The Fisher’s Exact test revealed significant differences between the two questionnaires (p = 0.049).
Studies assessing Website content used 30 different topics to classify the subject matter, of which 6 were common to 2 studies.
Conclusions: Although generic instruments for assessing the quality of Websites devoted to eating disorders were found, no validated questionnaire was observed. Neither did this research locate any checklist or simple tool which could be used by consumers of health information available on the Web.

Keywords:

Eating Disorders Internet Quality Control Consumer Health Information Access to Information

Content:

Access Issue in Scielo

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