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Online Traffic Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Websites for Hair Loss Treatment and Characterization of Finasteride Patients on a Platform in Germany: A Potential Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia

PURPOSE: The number of online prescription platforms (OPPs) offering telemedical diagnosis and treatment, including finasteride, for androgenetic alopecia (AA) by using medical questionnaires (MQs) has increased. This type of care delivery differs completely from traditional forms. This study aimed...

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Autores principales: Abeck, Finn, Hansen, Inga, Wiesenhütter, Isabell, Schröder, Florian, Kött, Julian, Schneider, Stefan W, von Büren, Johannes
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Dove 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10083033/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37041819
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CCID.S400614
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author Abeck, Finn
Hansen, Inga
Wiesenhütter, Isabell
Schröder, Florian
Kött, Julian
Schneider, Stefan W
von Büren, Johannes
author_facet Abeck, Finn
Hansen, Inga
Wiesenhütter, Isabell
Schröder, Florian
Kött, Julian
Schneider, Stefan W
von Büren, Johannes
author_sort Abeck, Finn
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: The number of online prescription platforms (OPPs) offering telemedical diagnosis and treatment, including finasteride, for androgenetic alopecia (AA) by using medical questionnaires (MQs) has increased. This type of care delivery differs completely from traditional forms. This study aimed to investigate a potential paradigm shift in AA treatment by measuring the extent of traffic generated by OPPs that exclusively treat AA and furthermore by characterizing sociodemographic features of men undergoing finasteride treatment from an OPP in Germany. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Examination of three OPPs (Keeps, Shapiro MD, Myspring), offering finasteride treatment via MQ between Q1 2018 and Q1 2022 was performed by using SEMRush, a marketing software platform for traffic analysis. Further data regarding sociodemographic characteristics were collected from Myspring by recruiting men with AA who obtained finasteride prescriptions between March 2021 and January 2022. RESULTS: A high number of unique quarterly visitors was recorded. The number of visitors increased on all platforms (Keeps 846%, Shapiro MD 109%, Myspring 427%). Most patients had accessed the platforms from mobile devices. Further data from Myspring included a total of 2904 men. Of all patients who answered the follow-up questionnaire (n = 177), 33.9% had been referred to the platform by television advertising. Of all respondents, 21.5% reported a monthly net income below 1000 euros. 45.2% of responding patients reported being single, while 15.3% considered themselves homosexual, and 4.5% bisexual. Convenience was the most common reason indicated for using an OPP (79.1%). CONCLUSION: The tremendous increase in the number of visits to OPPs for AA suggests a paradigm shift in medical care, particularly regarding MQ-based finasteride treatment. Sociodemographic data and reasons for platform use suggest that the shift away from traditional care models may increase in the future. The broad use of these digital health services warrants further investigation, particularly regarding patient safety.
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spelling pubmed-100830332023-04-10 Online Traffic Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Websites for Hair Loss Treatment and Characterization of Finasteride Patients on a Platform in Germany: A Potential Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia Abeck, Finn Hansen, Inga Wiesenhütter, Isabell Schröder, Florian Kött, Julian Schneider, Stefan W von Büren, Johannes Clin Cosmet Investig Dermatol Original Research PURPOSE: The number of online prescription platforms (OPPs) offering telemedical diagnosis and treatment, including finasteride, for androgenetic alopecia (AA) by using medical questionnaires (MQs) has increased. This type of care delivery differs completely from traditional forms. This study aimed to investigate a potential paradigm shift in AA treatment by measuring the extent of traffic generated by OPPs that exclusively treat AA and furthermore by characterizing sociodemographic features of men undergoing finasteride treatment from an OPP in Germany. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Examination of three OPPs (Keeps, Shapiro MD, Myspring), offering finasteride treatment via MQ between Q1 2018 and Q1 2022 was performed by using SEMRush, a marketing software platform for traffic analysis. Further data regarding sociodemographic characteristics were collected from Myspring by recruiting men with AA who obtained finasteride prescriptions between March 2021 and January 2022. RESULTS: A high number of unique quarterly visitors was recorded. The number of visitors increased on all platforms (Keeps 846%, Shapiro MD 109%, Myspring 427%). Most patients had accessed the platforms from mobile devices. Further data from Myspring included a total of 2904 men. Of all patients who answered the follow-up questionnaire (n = 177), 33.9% had been referred to the platform by television advertising. Of all respondents, 21.5% reported a monthly net income below 1000 euros. 45.2% of responding patients reported being single, while 15.3% considered themselves homosexual, and 4.5% bisexual. Convenience was the most common reason indicated for using an OPP (79.1%). CONCLUSION: The tremendous increase in the number of visits to OPPs for AA suggests a paradigm shift in medical care, particularly regarding MQ-based finasteride treatment. Sociodemographic data and reasons for platform use suggest that the shift away from traditional care models may increase in the future. The broad use of these digital health services warrants further investigation, particularly regarding patient safety. Dove 2023-04-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10083033/ /pubmed/37041819 http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CCID.S400614 Text en © 2023 Abeck et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) ). By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms (https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php).
spellingShingle Original Research
Abeck, Finn
Hansen, Inga
Wiesenhütter, Isabell
Schröder, Florian
Kött, Julian
Schneider, Stefan W
von Büren, Johannes
Online Traffic Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Websites for Hair Loss Treatment and Characterization of Finasteride Patients on a Platform in Germany: A Potential Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia
title Online Traffic Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Websites for Hair Loss Treatment and Characterization of Finasteride Patients on a Platform in Germany: A Potential Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia
title_full Online Traffic Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Websites for Hair Loss Treatment and Characterization of Finasteride Patients on a Platform in Germany: A Potential Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia
title_fullStr Online Traffic Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Websites for Hair Loss Treatment and Characterization of Finasteride Patients on a Platform in Germany: A Potential Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia
title_full_unstemmed Online Traffic Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Websites for Hair Loss Treatment and Characterization of Finasteride Patients on a Platform in Germany: A Potential Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia
title_short Online Traffic Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Websites for Hair Loss Treatment and Characterization of Finasteride Patients on a Platform in Germany: A Potential Paradigm Shift in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia
title_sort online traffic analysis of direct-to-consumer websites for hair loss treatment and characterization of finasteride patients on a platform in germany: a potential paradigm shift in the treatment of androgenetic alopecia
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10083033/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37041819
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/CCID.S400614
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