How accurate are the health websites you visit?
Lots of people looking to avoid going to the doctor these days, for lots of reasons, and they’re turning to the internet. So how accurate are the health websites you visit?
People are going online more and more for health advice. Just how safe is this? A recent survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 61% of people turn to the Internet for medical advice, and one-third of those folks will change their minds about how to treat an illness based on what they find. The problem is - the information in often unreliable. According to New Scientist magazine, several studies are set to be published soon that highlight this issue. For example, when researchers at the University of Murcia in Spain searched for information on oral cancers, the top websites listed on Google and Yahoo were “poor” in terms of accuracy. Many failed to site sources or report any conflicting information. When a team from Charité University in Berlin searched for heartburn advice, they found that the evidence for most of the online recommendations were – in their words – “weak to non-existent.”
Most researchers agree that Wikipedia is a big one to watch out for. It’s the 8th most visited website on the Internet, and the first stop for many people seeking medical advice. For the most part, it seems to be reliable. Errors are caught and corrected quickly, and entries improve over time. The problem is that Wikipedia is user-generated – meaning anyone can go in and make an entry on any page. It also means Wikipedia is vulnerable to unscrupulous editing. In fact, some drug firms have been caught removing negative information about their products from Wikipedia pages. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is catching on. Recently, they hosted an event to help teach health professionals how to edit Wikipedia’s medical pages - so they can help make the site a more reputable place. Until that becomes commonplace, experts say two of the most reliable health websites to check out are Web MD and The MayoClinic.com. Of course, your best bet when seeking out medical advice is always to talk to an actual doctor!