A follow-up study on the quality of alcohol dependence-related information on the web.

In order to evaluate the one-year evolution of web-based information on alcohol dependence, we re-assessed alcohol-related sites in July 2007 with the same evaluating tool that had been used to assess these sites in June 2006. Websites were assessed with a standardized form designed to rate sites on the basis of accountability, presentation, interactivity, readability, and content quality. The DISCERN scale was also used, which aimed to assist persons without content expertise in assessing the quality of written health publications.

Quality of Web-based information on depression.

Background: Although some studies have already been done on the quality of websites on depression, they have mainly focused on content quality, and were mostly carried out about a decade ago. The main aim of this work was thus to examine the quality of current websites on depression through the use of several indicators.

Methods: Three keywords on depression were entered into a popular search engine.

Brief DISCERN, six questions for the evaluation of evidence-based content of health-related websites.

Objective: To extract and to validate a brief version of the DISCERN which could identify mental health-related websites with good content quality.

Method: The present study is based on the analysis of data issued from six previous studies which used DISCERN and a standardized tool for the evaluation of content quality (evidence-based health information) of 388 mental health-related websites. After extracting the Brief DISCERN, several psychometric properties (content validity through a Factor analysis, internal consistency by the Cronbach's alpha index, predictive validity through the diagnostic tests, concurrent validity by the strength of association between the Brief DISCERN and the original DISCERN scores) were investigated to ascertain its general applicability.

[Assessing the quality of French language web sites pertaining to alcohol dependency].

The objective of this article is to systematically assess the quality of web-based information in French language on the alcohol dependence. The authors analysed, using a standardised pro forma, the 20 most highly ranked pages identified by 3 common internet search engines using 2 keywords. Results show that a total of 45 sites were analysed.