The influence of quality criteria on parents' evaluation of medical web-pages: an Italian randomised trial.

The aim of this study is to verify the usefulness for parents of a web evaluation framework composed of ten quality criteria to improve their ability to assess the quality level of medical web sites. We conducted a randomised controlled trial that included two groups of parents who independently evaluated five paediatric web sites by filling out two distinct questionnaires: group A with the evaluation framework, group B without it. 40 volunteers were recruited from parents referring to the General Paediatrics Out-patients Department who satisfied the following eligibility criteria: Internet users, at least 1 child under 12 months old, no professional skill in Internet and medicine.

A quality evaluation methodology of health web-pages for non-professionals.

Primary Objective: The proposal of an evaluation methodology for determining the quality of healthcare web sites for the dissemination of medical information to non-professionals.

Methods And Procedures: Three (macro) factors are considered for the quality evaluation: medical contents, accountability of the authors, and usability of the web site. Starting from two results in the literature the problem of whether or not to introduce a weighting function has been investigated.

The evolution of Web-based medical information on sore throat: a longitudinal study.

Background: The content of a page can change and is likely to change over time; this is one of the useful qualities of the Web, but also a dangerous one.

Objective: To monitor the evolution of Web page contents on sore throat over a 3 year period.

Methods: Two medical doctors independently evaluated 34 Web pages on sore throat.