Search results for "Consumer health"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
COVID-19: health literacy is an underestimated problem.
2020
Pregnancy and internet: sociodemographic and geographic differences in e-health practice. Results from an Italian multicenter study
2015
Since the new millennium, the number of e-health users has significantly increased. Among these, a particular category of people who are interested by this phenomenon is the one of pregnant women. The aim of the present study is to assess the sociodemographic and geographic differences existing in a sample of Italian pregnant women who search for information on the web.Multicenter cross-sectional survey.The present study has been conducted from November 2011 to September 2012, in seven Italian cities, located in the North, in the Centre and in the South of Italy. Data were collected through an anonymous questionnaire, administered in waiting rooms of outpatient departments by trained medica…
An Online Multilingual Medical Vocabulary/Thesaurus/Dictionary (MED-VTD) for Facilitating Understanding of Medical Texts
Medical texts (e.g., reports and medicine leaflets) are usually written by professionals (physicians, medical researchers, etc.) who use their own language and communication style. On the other hand, they are often read by health consumers or other medical professionals who do not have the same vocabularies and can have difficulties in text comprehension. Thus, to help a generic user in understanding a medical text, it would be desirable to have an online medical vocabulary/thesaurus/dictionary that he/she can easily look for finding the plain equivalent of any medical (technical) term and a definition of the term with the same kind of language. In this work, we present an online multilingu…
Spanish population trends in Internet searches for information on different diets
2019
Abstract Objective To use Google Trends to explore the trends of interest of the Spanish population regarding information related to different types of diets, focused on those that are popular and with evidence-based studies, over the last 10 years. Material and methods The search trends referred to the terms “Mediterranean diet”, “ketogenic diet”, “low fat diet”, “intermittent fasting” and “vegan diet” were analyzed. The relative search volumes (RSV) of the terms were compared. The direction of the trend was studied using the Spearman's correlation coefficient (SC). Results “Mediterranean diet” was the most widely searched term, with a median RSV of 16 (interquartile range [IQR] 6; range 8…
Quality of information about oral cancer in Brazilian Portuguese available on Google, Youtube, and Instagram
2020
Background To evaluate the quality of oral cancer information in Brazilian Portuguese on Google, YouTube, and Instagram. Material and Methods The first 100 links of each platform characterized the initial sample. The websites and Instagram were evaluated using the JAMA benchmarks, the Discern instrument, and the Flesch readability index (Flesch Reading Ease). The existence of Health on the Net (HON) code was also registered on websites. The usefulness of each video on YouTube was classified as not useful, slightly useful, moderately useful, or very useful. Results Thirty-four websites, 39 Instagram posts, and 57 videos were evaluated, of which 18 (33.3%) websites and 19 (48.7%) Instagram po…
Accuracy and Completeness of Drug Information in Wikipedia: A Comparison with Standard Textbooks of Pharmacology
2014
The online resource Wikipedia is increasingly used by students for knowledge acquisition and learning. However, the lack of a formal editorial review and the heterogeneous expertise of contributors often results in skepticism by educators whether Wikipedia should be recommended to students as an information source. In this study we systematically analyzed the accuracy and completeness of drug information in the German and English language versions of Wikipedia in comparison to standard textbooks of pharmacology. In addition, references, revision history and readability were evaluated. Analysis of readability was performed using the Amstad readability index and the Erste Wiener Sachtextforme…
Influence and use of information sources about childbearing among Spanish pregnant women
2020
Background: Pregnant women create their childbirth expectations from their available information. Therefore, they should have access to reliable and quality medical information. However, the literature points a knowledge gap with respect to the sources of information used by them. Objectives: The primary objective was to analyse the most influential and widely used sources of information about childbearing in Spanish pregnant women. The secondary objectives were to assess the quality and usefulness of the information sources, to identify those regarded as deficient by pregnant women and to discover differences in information use related to parity. Design and methods: A cross-sectional descr…
From sweeteners to cell phones—Cancer myths and beliefs among journalism undergraduates
2019
OBJECTIVE The media are an important source of health information that can help people make their own medical decisions. However, medical news can also transmit biases produced by different factors, such as the previously held beliefs of journalists. This study identifies which cancer myths are more popular among future journalists and whether their beliefs are related to their chosen source of health information. METHODS A survey was conducted among journalism undergraduates (N = 249) to determine which cancer myths existed and how widespread they were. The survey included a list with different sources of health information and eight questions regarding cancer-related myths. RESULTS The mo…
Pregnancy e-health: a multicenter Italian cross-sectional study on internet use and decision-making among pregnant women
2013
Background Our study aimed to estimate the prevalence of pregnancy e-health seekers in a large Italian sample; to explore the factors influencing the choices of the childbearing women regarding their lifestyles after internet consultation; and finally to investigate potential differences between primiparous and multiparous women in internet use to find information about pregnancy. Methods A multicentre survey was carried out in seven Italian cities. Data were collected through a validated questionnaire administered in waiting rooms of outpatient departments by medical doctors. Respondents were questioned about their sociodemographic status, their use of the internet to seek pregnancy inform…
Disease awareness campaigns in printed and online media in Latvia: cross-sectional study on consistency with WHO ethical criteria for medicinal drug …
2018
Background European legislation prohibits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, but allows drug manufacturers to provide information to the public on health and diseases. Our aim was to measure the frequency of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media and assess their compliance with international and European standards. Methods Materials on health/disease and treatments were collected between April and September 2015 from 12 newspapers and magazines and six online portals. Disease awareness campaigns were assessed using a previously developed instrument based on the WHO Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug promotion and European standards (EU law and pharmaceutical i…