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1.
Morris D Drake E Saarimaki A Bennett C O'Connor A 《Patient education and counseling》2008,73(3):557-560
Objective
To determine if people could find patient decision aids (PtDAs) on the Internet using the most popular general search engines.Methods
We chose five medical conditions for which English language PtDAs were available from at least three different developers. The search engines used were: Google (www.google.com), Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), and MSN (www.msn.com). For each condition and search engine we ran six searches using a combination of search terms. We coded all non-sponsored Web pages that were linked from the first page of the search results.Results
Most first page results linked to informational Web pages about the condition, only 16% linked to PtDAs. PtDAs were more readily found for the breast cancer surgery decision (our searches found seven of the nine developers). The searches using Yahoo and Google search engines were more likely to find PtDAs. The following combination of search terms: condition, treatment, decision (e.g. breast cancer surgery decision) was most successful across all search engines (29%).Conclusion
While some terms and search engines were more successful, few resulted in direct links to PtDAs.Practice implications
Finding PtDAs would be improved with use of standardized labelling, providing patients with specific Web site addresses or access to an independent PtDA clearinghouse. 相似文献2.
Background
During the past 2 decades, the Internet has evolved to become a necessity in our daily lives. The selection and sorting algorithms of search engines exert tremendous influence over the global spread of information and other communication processes.Objective
This study is concerned with demonstrating the influence of selection and sorting/ranking criteria operating in search engines on users’ knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes of websites about vaccination. In particular, it is to compare the effects of search engines that deliver websites emphasizing on the pro side of vaccination with those focusing on the con side and with normal Google as a control group.Method
We conducted 2 online experiments using manipulated search engines. A pilot study was to verify the existence of dangerous health literacy in connection with searching and using health information on the Internet by exploring the effect of 2 manipulated search engines that yielded either pro or con vaccination sites only, with a group receiving normal Google as control. A pre-post test design was used; participants were American marketing students enrolled in a study-abroad program in Lugano, Switzerland. The second experiment manipulated the search engine by applying different ratios of con versus pro vaccination webpages displayed in the search results. Participants were recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform where it was published as a human intelligence task (HIT).Results
Both experiments showed knowledge highest in the group offered only pro vaccination sites (Z=–2.088, P=.03; Kruskal-Wallis H test [H5]=11.30, P=.04). They acknowledged the importance/benefits (Z=–2.326, P=.02; H5=11.34, P=.04) and effectiveness (Z=–2.230, P=.03) of vaccination more, whereas groups offered antivaccination sites only showed increased concern about effects (Z=–2.582, P=.01; H5=16.88, P=.005) and harmful health outcomes (Z=–2.200, P=.02) of vaccination. Normal Google users perceived information quality to be positive despite a small effect on knowledge and a negative effect on their beliefs and attitudes toward vaccination and willingness to recommend the information (χ2 5=14.1, P=.01). More exposure to antivaccination websites lowered participants’ knowledge (J=4783.5, z=−2.142, P=.03) increased their fear of side effects (J=6496, z=2.724, P=.006), and lowered their acknowledgment of benefits (J=4805, z=–2.067, P=.03).Conclusion
The selection and sorting/ranking criteria of search engines play a vital role in online health information seeking. Search engines delivering websites containing credible and evidence-based medical information impact positively Internet users seeking health information. Whereas sites retrieved by biased search engines create some opinion change in users. These effects are apparently independent of users’ site credibility and evaluation judgments. Users are affected beneficially or detrimentally but are unaware, suggesting they are not consciously perceptive of indicators that steer them toward the credible sources or away from the dangerous ones. In this sense, the online health information seeker is flying blind. 相似文献3.
Breckons M Jones R Morris J Richardson J 《Journal of medical Internet research》2008,10(1):e3-Mar;10(1):e3
Background
Developers of health information websites aimed at consumers need methods to assess whether their website is of “high quality.” Due to the nature of complementary medicine, website information is diverse and may be of poor quality. Various methods have been used to assess the quality of websites, the two main approaches being (1) to compare the content against some gold standard, and (2) to rate various aspects of the site using an assessment tool.Objective
We aimed to review available evaluation instruments to assess their performance when used by a researcher to evaluate websites containing information on complementary medicine and breast cancer. In particular, we wanted to see if instruments used the same criteria, agreed on the ranking of websites, were easy to use by a researcher, and if use of a single tool was sufficient to assess website quality.Methods
Bibliographic databases, search engines, and citation searches were used to identify evaluation instruments. Instruments were included that enabled users with no subject knowledge to make an objective assessment of a website containing health information. The elements of each instrument were compared to nine main criteria defined by a previous study. Google was used to search for complementary medicine and breast cancer sites. The first six results and a purposive six from different origins (charities, sponsored, commercial) were chosen. Each website was assessed using each tool, and the percentage of criteria successfully met was recorded. The ranking of the websites by each tool was compared. The use of the instruments by others was estimated by citation analysis and Google searching.Results
A total of 39 instruments were identified, 12 of which met the inclusion criteria; the instruments contained between 4 and 43 questions. When applied to 12 websites, there was agreement of the rank order of the sites with 10 of the instruments. Instruments varied in the range of criteria they assessed and in their ease of use.Conclusions
Comparing the content of websites against a gold standard is time consuming and only feasible for very specific advice. Evaluation instruments offer gateway providers a method to assess websites. The checklist approach has face validity when results are compared to the actual content of “good” and “bad” websites. Although instruments differed in the range of items assessed, there was fair agreement between most available instruments. Some were easier to use than others, but these were not necessarily the instruments most widely used to date. Combining some of the better features of instruments to provide fewer, easy-to-use methods would be beneficial to gateway providers. 相似文献4.
Suzanne Dunne Niamh Maria Cummins Ailish Hannigan Bill Shannon Colum Dunne Walter Cullen 《Journal of medical Internet research》2013,15(8)
Background
The Internet is a widely used source of information for patients searching for medical/health care information. While many studies have assessed existing medical/health care information on the Internet, relatively few have examined methods for design and delivery of such websites, particularly those aimed at the general public.Objective
This study describes a method of evaluating material for new medical/health care websites, or for assessing those already in existence, which is correlated with higher rankings on Google''s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).Methods
A website quality assessment (WQA) tool was developed using criteria related to the quality of the information to be contained in the website in addition to an assessment of the readability of the text. This was retrospectively applied to assess existing websites that provide information about generic medicines. The reproducibility of the WQA tool and its predictive validity were assessed in this study.Results
The WQA tool demonstrated very high reproducibility (intraclass correlation coefficient=0.95) between 2 independent users. A moderate to strong correlation was found between WQA scores and rankings on Google SERPs. Analogous correlations were seen between rankings and readability of websites as determined by Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores.Conclusions
The use of the WQA tool developed in this study is recommended as part of the design phase of a medical or health care information provision website, along with assessment of readability of the material to be used. This may ensure that the website performs better on Google searches. The tool can also be used retrospectively to make improvements to existing websites, thus, potentially enabling better Google search result positions without incurring the costs associated with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professionals or paid promotion. 相似文献5.
The internet offers an accessible and cost-effective way to help women suffering with various types of postnatal mental illness
and also can provide resources for healthcare professionals. Many websites on postnatal mental illness are available, but
there is little information on the range or quality of information and resources offered. The current study therefore aimed
to review postnatal health websites and evaluate their quality on a variety of dimensions. A systematic review of postnatal
health websites was conducted. Searches were carried out on four search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and Bing) which
are used by 98% of web users. The first 25 websites found for each key word and their hyperlinks were assessed for inclusion
in the review. Websites had to be exclusively dedicated to postnatal mental health or have substantial information on postnatal
mental illness. Eligible websites (n = 114) were evaluated for accuracy of information, available resources and quality. Results showed that information was largely
incomplete and difficult to read; available help was limited and website quality was variable. The top five postnatal mental
illness websites were identified for (1) postnatal mental illness sufferers and (2) healthcare professionals. It is hoped
these top websites can be used by healthcare professionals both for their own information and to advise patients on quality
online resources. 相似文献
6.
Tom H Van De Belt Lucien JLPG Engelen Sivera AA Berben Lisette Schoonhoven 《Journal of medical Internet research》2010,12(2)
Background
During the last decade, the Internet has become increasingly popular and is now an important part of our daily life. When new “Web 2.0” technologies are used in health care, the terms “Health 2.0" or "Medicine 2.0” may be used.Objective
The objective was to identify unique definitions of Health 2.0/Medicine 2.0 and recurrent topics within the definitions.Methods
A systematic literature review of electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL) and gray literature on the Internet using the search engines Google, Bing, and Yahoo was performed to find unique definitions of Health 2.0/Medicine 2.0. We assessed all literature, extracted unique definitions, and selected recurrent topics by using the constant comparison method.Results
We found a total of 1937 articles, 533 in scientific databases and 1404 in the gray literature. We selected 46 unique definitions for further analysis and identified 7 main topics.Conclusions
Health 2.0/Medicine 2.0 are still developing areas. Many articles concerning this subject were found, primarily on the Internet. However, there is still no general consensus regarding the definition of Health 2.0/Medicine 2.0. We hope that this study will contribute to building the concept of Health 2.0/Medicine 2.0 and facilitate discussion and further research. 相似文献7.
Background
Mood disorders affect a significant portion of the general population. Cycling mood disorders are characterized by intermittent episodes (or events) of the disease.Objective
Using anonymized Web search logs, we identify a population of people with significant interest in mood stabilizing drugs (MSD) and seek evidence of mood swings in this population.Methods
We extracted queries to the Microsoft Bing search engine made by 20,046 Web searchers over six months, separately explored searcher demographics using data from a large external panel of users, and sought supporting information from people with mood disorders via a survey. We analyzed changes in information needs over time relative to searches on MSD.Results
Queries for MSD focused on side effects and their relation to the disease. We found evidence of significant changes in search behavior and interests coinciding with days that MSD queries are made. These include large increases (>100%) in the access of nutrition information, commercial information, and adult materials. A survey of patients diagnosed with mood disorders provided evidence that repeated queries on MSD may come with exacerbations of mood disorder. A classifier predicting the occurrence of such queries one day before they are observed obtains strong performance (AUC=0.78).Conclusions
Observed patterns in search behavior align with known behaviors and those highlighted by survey respondents. These observations suggest that searchers showing intensive interest in MSD may be patients who have been prescribed these drugs. Given behavioral dynamics, we surmise that the days on which MSD queries are made may coincide with commencement of mania or depression. Although we do not have data on mood changes and whether users have been diagnosed with bipolar illness, we see evidence of cycling in people who show interest in MSD and further show that we can predict impending shifts in behavior and interest. 相似文献8.
Background
Online health information is of variable and often low scientific quality. In particular, elderly less-educated populations are said to struggle in accessing quality online information (digital divide). Little is known about (1) how their online behavior differs from that of younger, more-educated, and more-frequent Web users, and (2) how the older population may be supported in accessing good-quality online health information.Objective
To specify the digital divide between skilled and less-skilled Web users, we assessed qualitative differences in technical skills, cognitive strategies, and attitudes toward online health information. Based on these findings, we identified educational and technological interventions to help Web users find and access good-quality online health information.Methods
We asked 22 native German-speaking adults to search for health information online. The skilled cohort consisted of 10 participants who were younger than 30 years of age, had a higher level of education, and were more experienced using the Web than 12 participants in the less-skilled cohort, who were at least 50 years of age. We observed online health information searches to specify differences in technical skills and analyzed concurrent verbal protocols to identify health information seekers’ cognitive strategies and attitudes.Results
Our main findings relate to (1) attitudes: health information seekers in both cohorts doubted the quality of information retrieved online; among poorly skilled seekers, this was mainly because they doubted their skills to navigate vast amounts of information; once a website was accessed, quality concerns disappeared in both cohorts, (2) technical skills: skilled Web users effectively filtered information according to search intentions and data sources; less-skilled users were easily distracted by unrelated information, and (3) cognitive strategies: skilled Web users searched to inform themselves; less-skilled users searched to confirm their health-related opinions such as “vaccinations are harmful.” Independent of Web-use skills, most participants stopped a search once they had found the first piece of evidence satisfying search intentions, rather than according to quality criteria.Conclusions
Findings related to Web-use skills differences suggest two classes of interventions to facilitate access to good-quality online health information. Challenges related to findings (1) and (2) should be remedied by improving people’s basic Web-use skills. In particular, Web users should be taught how to avoid information overload by generating specific search terms and to avoid low-quality information by requesting results from trusted websites only. Problems related to finding (3) may be remedied by visually labeling search engine results according to quality criteria. 相似文献9.
Annie YS Lau Enrico Coiera Tatjana Zrimec Paul Compton 《Journal of medical Internet research》2010,12(2)
Background
Searching the Web for documents using information retrieval systems plays an important part in clinicians’ practice of evidence-based medicine. While much research focuses on the design of methods to retrieve documents, there has been little examination of the way different search engine capabilities influence clinician search behaviors.Objectives
Previous studies have shown that use of task-based search engines allows for faster searches with no loss of decision accuracy compared with resource-based engines. We hypothesized that changes in search behaviors may explain these differences.Methods
In all, 75 clinicians (44 doctors and 31 clinical nurse consultants) were randomized to use either a resource-based or a task-based version of a clinical information retrieval system to answer questions about 8 clinical scenarios in a controlled setting in a university computer laboratory. Clinicians using the resource-based system could select 1 of 6 resources, such as PubMed; clinicians using the task-based system could select 1 of 6 clinical tasks, such as diagnosis. Clinicians in both systems could reformulate search queries. System logs unobtrusively capturing clinicians’ interactions with the systems were coded and analyzed for clinicians’ search actions and query reformulation strategies.Results
The most frequent search action of clinicians using the resource-based system was to explore a new resource with the same query, that is, these clinicians exhibited a “breadth-first” search behaviour. Of 1398 search actions, clinicians using the resource-based system conducted 401 (28.7%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 26.37-31.11) in this way. In contrast, the majority of clinicians using the task-based system exhibited a “depth-first” search behavior in which they reformulated query keywords while keeping to the same task profiles. Of 585 search actions conducted by clinicians using the task-based system, 379 (64.8%, 95% CI 60.83-68.55) were conducted in this way.Conclusions
This study provides evidence that different search engine designs are associated with different user search behaviors. 相似文献10.
Michael Westerlund Gergo Hadlaczky Danuta Wasserman 《Journal of medical Internet research》2012,14(5)
Background
Suicide is one of the major causes of death in the world, leading to approximately 1 million deaths per year. While much of what is said about suicide and its causes is still taboo in most contemporary societies and cultures, internet websites and discussion forums have become an important and controversial source of information on the subject. A great deal of ambivalence is discernible as to whether online communication about suicide primarily should be seen as an opportunity or a serious threat.Objective
To investigate how the subject of suicide is represented on the Internet, based on hits generated by the search engine Google.Methods
In an exploratory design, Google search results on the target word “suicide”, for the years 2005, 2009, and 2012 respectively, were systematically analyzed and compared.Results
The study shows that web pages of institutional origin on the subject predominate, that the content provided by these institutions concerns primarily research and prevention, and that the form of communication used by these senders is almost exclusively monological. However, besides these institutional pages there are a substantial number of private senders and pages, often anti-medical and against treatment of depression and other mental problems, characterized by dialogue, confessions and narratives, and to a higher degree, an alternative pro-suicide stance.Conclusions
To counteract the influence of anti-medical and pro-suicide information, the role of the Internet should be discussed with the patient in clinical practice. Dialogical and confessional communications provide an opportunity for the clinician to gain a deeper perspective into perceptions of patients, regarding both their afflictions and the role of medical treatment in their lives. 相似文献11.
《Patient education and counseling》2020,103(12):2594-2597
ObjectivesTo analyse the quality of information included in websites aimed at the public on COVID-19.MethodsYahoo!, Google and Bing search engines were browsed using selected keywords on COVID-19. The first 100 websites from each search engine for each keyword were evaluated. Validated tools were used to assess readability [Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES)], usability and reliability (LIDA tool) and quality (DISCERN instrument). Non-parametric tests were used for statistical analyses.ResultsEighty-four eligible sites were analysed. The median FRES score was 54.2 (range: 23.2−73.5). The median LIDA usability and reliability scores were 46 (range: 18−54) and 37(range:14−51), respectively. A low (<50 %) overall LIDA score was recorded for 30.9 % (n = 26) of the websites. The median DISCERN score was 49.5 (range: 21–77). The DISCERN score of ≤50 % was found in 45 (53.6 %) websites. The DISCERN score was significantly associated with LIDA usability and reliability scores (p < 0.001) and the FRES score (p = 0.024).ConclusionThe majority of websites on COVID-19 for the public had moderate to low scores with regards to readability, usability, reliability and quality.Practice ImplicationsPrompt strategies should be implemented to standardize online health information on COVID-19 during this pandemic to ensure the general public has access to good quality reliable information. 相似文献
12.
Background
Numerous consumer health information websites have been developed to provide consumers access to health information. However, lookup search is insufficient for consumers to take full advantage of these rich public information resources. Exploratory search is considered a promising complementary mechanism, but its efficacy has never before been rigorously evaluated for consumer health information retrieval interfaces.Objective
This study aims to (1) introduce a novel Conjunctive Exploratory Navigation Interface (CENI) for supporting effective consumer health information retrieval and navigation, and (2) evaluate the effectiveness of CENI through a search-interface comparative evaluation using crowdsourcing with Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT).Methods
We collected over 60,000 consumer health questions from NetWellness, one of the first consumer health websites to provide high-quality health information. We designed and developed a novel conjunctive exploratory navigation interface to explore NetWellness health questions with health topics as dynamic and searchable menus. To investigate the effectiveness of CENI, we developed a second interface with keyword-based search only. A crowdsourcing comparative study was carefully designed to compare three search modes of interest: (A) the topic-navigation-based CENI, (B) the keyword-based lookup interface, and (C) either the most commonly available lookup search interface with Google, or the resident advanced search offered by NetWellness. To compare the effectiveness of the three search modes, 9 search tasks were designed with relevant health questions from NetWellness. Each task included a rating of difficulty level and questions for validating the quality of answers. Ninety anonymous and unique AMT workers were recruited as participants.Results
Repeated-measures ANOVA analysis of the data showed the search modes A, B, and C had statistically significant differences among their levels of difficulty (P<.001). Wilcoxon signed-rank test (one-tailed) between A and B showed that A was significantly easier than B (P<.001). Paired t tests (one-tailed) between A and C showed A was significantly easier than C (P<.001). Participant responses on the preferred search modes showed that 47.8% (43/90) participants preferred A, 25.6% (23/90) preferred B, 24.4% (22/90) preferred C. Participant comments on the preferred search modes indicated that CENI was easy to use, provided better organization of health questions by topics, allowed users to narrow down to the most relevant contents quickly, and supported the exploratory navigation by non-experts or those unsure how to initiate their search.Conclusions
We presented a novel conjunctive exploratory navigation interface for consumer health information retrieval and navigation. Crowdsourcing permitted a carefully designed comparative search-interface evaluation to be completed in a timely and cost-effective manner with a relatively large number of participants recruited anonymously. Accounting for possible biases, our study has shown for the first time with crowdsourcing that the combination of exploratory navigation and lookup search is more effective than lookup search alone. 相似文献13.
Naomi S Bardach Judith H Hibbard Felix Greaves R Adams Dudley 《Journal of medical Internet research》2015,17(5)
Background
In the context of the Affordable Care Act, there is extensive emphasis on making provider quality transparent and publicly available. Online public reports of quality exist, but little is known about how visitors find reports or about their purpose in visiting.Objective
To address this gap, we gathered website analytics data from a national group of online public reports of hospital or physician quality and surveyed real-time visitors to those websites.Methods
Websites were recruited from a national group of online public reports of hospital or physician quality. Analytics data were gathered from each website: number of unique visitors, method of arrival for each unique visitor, and search terms resulting in visits. Depending on the website, a survey invitation was launched for unique visitors on landing pages or on pages with quality information. Survey topics included type of respondent (eg, consumer, health care professional), purpose of visit, areas of interest, website experience, and demographics.Results
There were 116,657 unique visitors to the 18 participating websites (1440 unique visitors/month per website), with most unique visitors arriving through search (63.95%, 74,606/116,657). Websites with a higher percent of traffic from search engines garnered more unique visitors (P=.001). The most common search terms were for individual hospitals (23.25%, 27,122/74,606) and website names (19.43%, 22,672/74,606); medical condition terms were uncommon (0.81%, 605/74,606). Survey view rate was 42.48% (49,560/116,657 invited) resulting in 1755 respondents (participation rate=3.6%). There were substantial proportions of consumer (48.43%, 850/1755) and health care professional respondents (31.39%, 551/1755). Across websites, proportions of consumer (21%-71%) and health care professional respondents (16%-48%) varied. Consumers were frequently interested in using the information to choose providers or assess the quality of their provider (52.7%, 225/427); the majority of those choosing a provider reported that they had used the information to do so (78%, 40/51). Health care professional (26.6%, 115/443) and consumer (20.8%, 92/442) respondents wanted cost information and consumers wanted patient narrative comments (31.5%, 139/442) on the public reports. Health care professional respondents rated the experience on the reports higher than consumers did (mean 7.2, SD 2.2 vs mean 6.2, SD 2.7; scale 0-10; P<.001).Conclusions
Report sponsors interested in increasing the influence of their reports could consider using techniques to improve search engine traffic, providing cost information and patient comments, and improving the website experience for both consumers and health care professionals. 相似文献14.
Salimah Z Shariff Shayna AD Bejaimal Jessica M Sontrop Arthur V Iansavichus R Brian Haynes Matthew A Weir Amit X Garg 《Journal of medical Internet research》2013,15(8)
Background
Physicians frequently search PubMed for information to guide patient care. More recently, Google Scholar has gained popularity as another freely accessible bibliographic database.Objective
To compare the performance of searches in PubMed and Google Scholar.Methods
We surveyed nephrologists (kidney specialists) and provided each with a unique clinical question derived from 100 renal therapy systematic reviews. Each physician provided the search terms they would type into a bibliographic database to locate evidence to answer the clinical question. We executed each of these searches in PubMed and Google Scholar and compared results for the first 40 records retrieved (equivalent to 2 default search pages in PubMed). We evaluated the recall (proportion of relevant articles found) and precision (ratio of relevant to nonrelevant articles) of the searches performed in PubMed and Google Scholar. Primary studies included in the systematic reviews served as the reference standard for relevant articles. We further documented whether relevant articles were available as free full-texts.Results
Compared with PubMed, the average search in Google Scholar retrieved twice as many relevant articles (PubMed: 11%; Google Scholar: 22%; P<.001). Precision was similar in both databases (PubMed: 6%; Google Scholar: 8%; P=.07). Google Scholar provided significantly greater access to free full-text publications (PubMed: 5%; Google Scholar: 14%; P<.001).Conclusions
For quick clinical searches, Google Scholar returns twice as many relevant articles as PubMed and provides greater access to free full-text articles. 相似文献15.
Tsuyoshi Okuhara Hirono Ishikawa Masahumi Okada Mio Kato Takahiro Kiuchi 《Patient education and counseling》2018,101(3):406-413
Objective
In Japan, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rate has sharply fallen to nearly 0% due to sensational media reports of adverse events. Online anti-HPV-vaccination activists often warn readers of the vaccine’s dangers. Here, we aimed to examine frequently appearing contents on pro- and anti-HPV vaccination websites.Methods
We conducted online searches via two major search engines (Google Japan and Yahoo! Japan). Targeted websites were classified as “pro,” “anti,” or “neutral” according to their claims, with the author(s) classified as “health professionals,” “mass media,” or “laypersons.” We then conducted a text mining analysis.Results
Of the 270 sites analyzed, 16 contents were identified. The most frequently appearing contents on pro websites were vaccine side effects, preventable effect of vaccination, and cause of cervical cancer. The most frequently appearing contents on anti websites were vaccine side effects, vaccine toxicity, and girls who suffer from vaccine side effects. Main disseminators of each content according to the author’s expertise were also revealed.Conclusion
Pro-HPV vaccination websites should supplement deficient contents and respond to frequent contents on anti-HPV websites.Practice implications
Effective tactics are needed to better communicate susceptibility to cervical cancer, frequency of side effects, and responses to vaccine toxicity and conspiracy theories. 相似文献16.
Elad Yom-Tov Diana Borsa Ingemar J Cox Rachel A McKendry 《Journal of medical Internet research》2014,16(6)
Background
Mass gatherings, such as music festivals and religious events, pose a health care challenge because of the risk of transmission of communicable diseases. This is exacerbated by the fact that participants disperse soon after the gathering, potentially spreading disease within their communities. The dispersion of participants also poses a challenge for traditional surveillance methods. The ubiquitous use of the Internet may enable the detection of disease outbreaks through analysis of data generated by users during events and shortly thereafter.Objective
The intent of the study was to develop algorithms that can alert to possible outbreaks of communicable diseases from Internet data, specifically Twitter and search engine queries.Methods
We extracted all Twitter postings and queries made to the Bing search engine by users who repeatedly mentioned one of nine major music festivals held in the United Kingdom and one religious event (the Hajj in Mecca) during 2012, for a period of 30 days and after each festival. We analyzed these data using three methods, two of which compared words associated with disease symptoms before and after the time of the festival, and one that compared the frequency of these words with those of other users in the United Kingdom in the days following the festivals.Results
The data comprised, on average, 7.5 million tweets made by 12,163 users, and 32,143 queries made by 1756 users from each festival. Our methods indicated the statistically significant appearance of a disease symptom in two of the nine festivals. For example, cough was detected at higher than expected levels following the Wakestock festival. Statistically significant agreement (chi-square test, P<.01) between methods and across data sources was found where a statistically significant symptom was detected. Anecdotal evidence suggests that symptoms detected are indeed indicative of a disease that some users attributed to being at the festival.Conclusions
Our work shows the feasibility of creating a public health surveillance system for mass gatherings based on Internet data. The use of multiple data sources and analysis methods was found to be advantageous for rejecting false positives. Further studies are required in order to validate our findings with data from public health authorities. 相似文献17.
Marlene Kritz Manfred Gschwandtner Veronika Stefanov Allan Hanbury Matthias Samwald 《Journal of medical Internet research》2013,15(6)
Background
There is a large body of research suggesting that medical professionals have unmet information needs during their daily routines.Objective
To investigate which online resources and tools different groups of European physicians use to gather medical information and to identify barriers that prevent the successful retrieval of medical information from the Internet.Methods
A detailed Web-based questionnaire was sent out to approximately 15,000 physicians across Europe and disseminated through partner websites. 500 European physicians of different levels of academic qualification and medical specialization were included in the analysis. Self-reported frequency of use of different types of online resources, perceived importance of search tools, and perceived search barriers were measured. Comparisons were made across different levels of qualification (qualified physicians vs physicians in training, medical specialists without professorships vs medical professors) and specialization (general practitioners vs specialists).Results
Most participants were Internet-savvy, came from Austria (43%, 190/440) and Switzerland (31%, 137/440), were above 50 years old (56%, 239/430), stated high levels of medical work experience, had regular patient contact and were employed in nonacademic health care settings (41%, 177/432). All groups reported frequent use of general search engines and cited “restricted accessibility to good quality information” as a dominant barrier to finding medical information on the Internet. Physicians in training reported the most frequent use of Wikipedia (56%, 31/55). Specialists were more likely than general practitioners to use medical research databases (68%, 185/274 vs 27%, 24/88; χ2 2=44.905, P<.001). General practitioners were more likely than specialists to report “lack of time” as a barrier towards finding information on the Internet (59%, 50/85 vs 43%, 111/260; χ2 1=7.231, P=.007) and to restrict their search by language (48%, 43/89 vs 35%, 97/278; χ2 1=5.148, P=.023). They frequently consult general health websites (36%, 31/87 vs 19%, 51/269; χ2 2=12.813, P=.002) and online physician network communities (17%, 15/86, χ2 2=9.841 vs 6%, 17/270, P<.001).Conclusions
The reported inaccessibility of relevant, trustworthy resources on the Internet and frequent reliance on general search engines and social media among physicians require further attention. Possible solutions may be increased governmental support for the development and popularization of user-tailored medical search tools and open access to high-quality content for physicians. The potential role of collaborative tools in providing the psychological support and affirmation normally given by medical colleagues needs further consideration. Tools that speed up quality evaluation and aid selection of relevant search results need to be identified. In order to develop an adequate search tool, a differentiated approach considering the differing needs of physician subgroups may be beneficial. 相似文献18.
Theresa Marie Bernardo Andrijana Rajic Ian Young Katie Robiadek Mai T Pham Julie A Funk 《Journal of medical Internet research》2013,15(7)
Background
The threat of a global pandemic posed by outbreaks of influenza H5N1 (1997) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS, 2002), both diseases of zoonotic origin, provoked interest in improving early warning systems and reinforced the need for combining data from different sources. It led to the use of search query data from search engines such as Google and Yahoo! as an indicator of when and where influenza was occurring. This methodology has subsequently been extended to other diseases and has led to experimentation with new types of social media for disease surveillance.Objective
The objective of this scoping review was to formally assess the current state of knowledge regarding the use of search queries and social media for disease surveillance in order to inform future work on early detection and more effective mitigation of the effects of foodborne illness.Methods
Structured scoping review methods were used to identify, characterize, and evaluate all published primary research, expert review, and commentary articles regarding the use of social media in surveillance of infectious diseases from 2002-2011.Results
Thirty-two primary research articles and 19 reviews and case studies were identified as relevant. Most relevant citations were peer-reviewed journal articles (29/32, 91%) published in 2010-11 (28/32, 88%) and reported use of a Google program for surveillance of influenza. Only four primary research articles investigated social media in the context of foodborne disease or gastroenteritis. Most authors (21/32 articles, 66%) reported that social media-based surveillance had comparable performance when compared to an existing surveillance program. The most commonly reported strengths of social media surveillance programs included their effectiveness (21/32, 66%) and rapid detection of disease (21/32, 66%). The most commonly reported weaknesses were the potential for false positive (16/32, 50%) and false negative (11/32, 34%) results. Most authors (24/32, 75%) recommended that social media programs should primarily be used to support existing surveillance programs.Conclusions
The use of search queries and social media for disease surveillance are relatively recent phenomena (first reported in 2006). Both the tools themselves and the methodologies for exploiting them are evolving over time. While their accuracy, speed, and cost compare favorably with existing surveillance systems, the primary challenge is to refine the data signal by reducing surrounding noise. Further developments in digital disease surveillance have the potential to improve sensitivity and specificity, passively through advances in machine learning and actively through engagement of users. Adoption, even as supporting systems for existing surveillance, will entail a high level of familiarity with the tools and collaboration across jurisdictions. 相似文献19.
Yan Zhang 《Journal of medical Internet research》2013,15(11)
Background
Preference for information is a personality trait that affects people’s tendency to seek information in health-related situations. Prior studies have focused primarily on investigating its impact on patient-provider communication and on the implications for designing information interventions that prepare patients for medical procedures. Few studies have examined its impact on general consumers’ interactions with Web-based search engines for health information or the implications for designing more effective health information search systems.Objective
This study intends to fill this gap by investigating the impact of preference for information on the search behavior of general consumers seeking health information, their perceptions of search tasks (representing information needs), and user experience with search systems.Methods
Forty general consumers who had previously searched for health information online participated in the study in our usability lab. Preference for information was measured using Miller’s Monitor-Blunter Style Scale (MBSS) and the Krantz Health Opinion Survey-Information Scale (KHOS-I). Each participant completed four simulated health information search tasks: two look-up (fact-finding) and two exploratory. Their behaviors while interacting with the search systems were automatically logged and ratings of their perceptions of tasks and user experience with the systems were collected using Likert-scale questionnaires.Results
The MBSS showed low reliability with the participants (Monitoring subscale: Cronbach alpha=.53; Blunting subscale: Cronbach alpha=.35). Thus, no further analyses were performed based on the scale. KHOS-I had sufficient reliability (Cronbach alpha=.77). Participants were classified into low- and high-preference groups based on their KHOS-I scores. The high-preference group submitted significantly shorter queries when completing the look-up tasks (P=.02). The high-preference group made a significantly higher percentage of parallel movements in query reformulation than did the low-preference group (P=.04), whereas the low-preference group made a significantly higher percentage of new concept movements than the high-preference group when completing the exploratory tasks (P=.01). The high-preference group found the exploratory tasks to be significantly more difficult (P=.05) and the systems to be less useful (P=.04) than did the low-preference group.Conclusions
Preference for information has an impact on the search behavior of general consumers seeking health information. Those with a high preference were more likely to use more general queries when searching for specific factual information and to develop more complex mental representations of health concerns of an exploratory nature and try different combinations of concepts to explore these concerns. High-preference users were also more demanding on the system. Health information search systems should be tailored to fit individuals’ information preferences. 相似文献20.
Shouq A Sadah Moloud Shahbazi Matthew T Wiley Vagelis Hristidis 《Journal of medical Internet research》2015,17(8)