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Quality of information on the internet related to bladder pain syndrome: a systematic review of the evidence

  • Review Article
  • Published:
International Urogynecology Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction and hypothesis

Bladder pain syndrome (BPS) has an impact on quality of life and available treatments often only provide temporary symptomatic relief. The information provided by websites can be valuable for patient education and management. The hypothesis was to assess medical information available on the internet related to bladder pain syndrome in terms of accuracy, credibility, readability and quality.

Methods

A search was performed in the meta-search engine Copernic Agent, using the search terms “bladder pain syndrome, interstitial cystitis, painful bladder syndrome and pelvic pain”, which simultaneously captured websites from a range of engines. Websites in the English language that were open-access were included. The four quality assessments used were: credibility using a ten-point scale, accuracy based on the American Urological Association guidelines, quality using the DISCERN questionnaire and readability using the Flesch Reading Ease Score. Inter-rater agreement was tested by intra-class coefficient (ICC).

Results

Eighteen suitable websites were identified; 7 (39%) were specialist or specific to BPS. The combined mean scores for accuracy, quality, credibility and readability ranged from 83 to 144 for specialist websites and 76 to 137 for non-specialist ones, with a maximum possible score of 208. There was good inter-observer agreement for the assessments performed with an ICC ranging from 0.80 for DISCERN to 0.53 for readability. Specialist websites had higher quality scores (median difference 10, p = 0.07) and readability scores (median difference 5.4, p = 0.05) compared with non-specialist websites whereas credibility and accuracy scores were no different.

Conclusion

We found four websites that fulfilled our criteria for good quality information.

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Abbreviations

AUA:

American Urological Association

BPS:

Bladder pain syndrome

CI:

Confidence interval

DMSO:

Dimethyl sulfoxide

FRE:

Flesch Reading Ease test

ICC:

Intra-class co-efficient

PRISMA:

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses

PROSPERO:

International Prospective Register for Systematic Reviews

SD:

Standard deviation

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Women’s Health Research Unit, Queen Mary, University of London, Turner Street, London, E1 2AB, UK

    S. A. Tirlapur, C. Leiu & K. S. Khan

  2. Barts Health NHS Trust, The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1BB, UK

    S. A. Tirlapur & K. S. Khan

  3. Women’s Health Research Unit, Barts and the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary, University of London, 58 Turner Street, London, E1 2AB, UK

    S. A. Tirlapur

Authors
  1. S. A. Tirlapur
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  2. C. Leiu
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  3. K. S. Khan
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Correspondence to S. A. Tirlapur.

Additional information

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42012003203

Brief summary

Patient-accessible information on the internet related to bladder painsyndrome can be variable in terms of quality, credibility, accuracy and readability

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Tirlapur, S.A., Leiu, C. & Khan, K.S. Quality of information on the internet related to bladder pain syndrome: a systematic review of the evidence. Int Urogynecol J 24, 1257–1262 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-013-2091-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00192-013-2091-1

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