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Fifteen-year trend in information on the World Wide Web for patients with rheumatoid arthritis: evolving, but opportunities for improvement remain

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the changes in the characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis information on the Internet over a 15-year period and the positioning of Web sites posted by universities, hospitals, and medical associations. We replicated the methods of a 2001 study assessing rheumatoid arthritis information on the Internet using WebCrawler. All Web sites and pages were critically assessed for relevance, scope, authorship, type of publication, and financial objectives. Differences between studies were considered significant if 95 % confidence intervals did not overlap. Additionally, we added a Google search with assessments of the quality of content of web pages and of the Web sites posted by medical institutions. There were significant differences between the present study’s WebCrawler search and the 2001-referent study. There were increases in information sites (82 vs 36 %) and rheumatoid arthritis-specific discussion pages (59 vs 8 %), and decreases in advertisements (2 vs 48 %) and alternative therapies (27 vs 45 %). The quality of content of web pages is still dispersed; just 37 % were rated as good. Among the first 300 hits, 30 (10 %) were posted by medical institutions, 17 of them in the USA. Regarding readability, 7 % of these 30 web pages required 6 years, 27 % required 7–9 years, 27 % required 10–12 years, and 40 % required 12 or more years of schooling. The Internet has evolved in the last 15 years. Medical institutions are also better positioned. However, there are still areas for improvement, such as the quality of the content, leadership of medical institutions, and readability of information.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Investigacion en Enfermedades Cronico-Degenerativas, Colomos 2292, Providencia, 44620, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

    Jose Dionisio Castillo-Ortiz, Jose de Jesus Valdivia-Nuno, Andrea Ramirez-Gomez, Heber Garagarza-Mariscal, Carlos Gallegos-Rios, Gabriel Flores-Hernandez, Luis Hernandez-Sanchez, Victor Brambila-Barba, Jose Juan Castaneda-Sanchez, Zalathiel Barajas-Ochoa, Angel Suarez-Rico & Cesar Ramos-Remus

  2. Vicerrectoría Académica, Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Avenida Patria 1201, Col. Lomas del Valle, 45129, Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico

    Jorge Manuel Sanchez-Gonzalez & Cesar Ramos-Remus

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  1. Jose Dionisio Castillo-Ortiz
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  2. Jose de Jesus Valdivia-Nuno
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  3. Andrea Ramirez-Gomez
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  9. Jose Juan Castaneda-Sanchez
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  10. Zalathiel Barajas-Ochoa
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  13. Cesar Ramos-Remus
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cesar Ramos-Remus.

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Conflict of interest

J.D. Castillo-Ortiz declares that he has no conflict of interest; J.J. Valdivia-Nuno declares that he has no conflict of interest; A. Ramirez-Gomez declares that she has no conflict of interest; H. Garagarza-Mariscal declares that he has no conflict of interest; C. Gallegos-Rios declares that he has no conflict of interest; G. Flores-Hernandez declares that he has no conflict of interest; L. Hernandez-Sanchez declares that he has no conflict of interest; V. Brambila-Barba declares that he has no conflict of interest; J.J. Castaneda-Sanchez declares that he has no conflict of interest; Z. Barajas-Ochoa declares that he has no conflict of interest; A. Suarez-Rico declares that he has no conflict of interest; J.M. Sanchez-Gonzalez declares that he has no conflict of interest; Cesar Ramos-Remus declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Castillo-Ortiz, J.D., de Jesus Valdivia-Nuno, J., Ramirez-Gomez, A. et al. Fifteen-year trend in information on the World Wide Web for patients with rheumatoid arthritis: evolving, but opportunities for improvement remain. Rheumatol Int 36, 1281–1289 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-016-3507-2

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