Cargando…
Surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of World Health Organization recommendations on prevention
BACKGROUND: People often search for information on influenza A(H1N1)v prevention on the web. The extent to which information found on the Internet is consistent with recommendations issued by the World Health Organization is unknown. METHODS: We conducted a search for "swine flu" accessing...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2010
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955000/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20854690 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-561 |
_version_ | 1782187993499435008 |
---|---|
author | Gesualdo, Francesco Romano, Mariateresa Pandolfi, Elisabetta Rizzo, Caterina Ravà, Lucilla Lucente, Daniela Tozzi, Alberto E |
author_facet | Gesualdo, Francesco Romano, Mariateresa Pandolfi, Elisabetta Rizzo, Caterina Ravà, Lucilla Lucente, Daniela Tozzi, Alberto E |
author_sort | Gesualdo, Francesco |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: People often search for information on influenza A(H1N1)v prevention on the web. The extent to which information found on the Internet is consistent with recommendations issued by the World Health Organization is unknown. METHODS: We conducted a search for "swine flu" accessing 3 of the most popular search engines through different proxy servers located in 4 English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, UK, USA). We explored each site resulting from the searches, up to 4 clicks starting from the search engine page, analyzing availability of World Health Organization recommendations for swine flu prevention. RESULTS: Information on hand cleaning was reported on 79% of the 147 websites analyzed; staying home when sick was reported on 77.5% of the websites; disposing tissues after sneezing on 75.5% of the websites. Availability of other recommendations was lower. The probability of finding preventative recommendations consistent with World Health Organization varied by country, type of website, and search engine. CONCLUSIONS: Despite media coverage on H1N1 influenza, relevant information for prevention is not easily found on the web. Strategies to improve information delivery to the general public through this channel should be improved. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2955000 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2010 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-29550002010-10-15 Surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of World Health Organization recommendations on prevention Gesualdo, Francesco Romano, Mariateresa Pandolfi, Elisabetta Rizzo, Caterina Ravà, Lucilla Lucente, Daniela Tozzi, Alberto E BMC Public Health Correspondence BACKGROUND: People often search for information on influenza A(H1N1)v prevention on the web. The extent to which information found on the Internet is consistent with recommendations issued by the World Health Organization is unknown. METHODS: We conducted a search for "swine flu" accessing 3 of the most popular search engines through different proxy servers located in 4 English-speaking countries (Australia, Canada, UK, USA). We explored each site resulting from the searches, up to 4 clicks starting from the search engine page, analyzing availability of World Health Organization recommendations for swine flu prevention. RESULTS: Information on hand cleaning was reported on 79% of the 147 websites analyzed; staying home when sick was reported on 77.5% of the websites; disposing tissues after sneezing on 75.5% of the websites. Availability of other recommendations was lower. The probability of finding preventative recommendations consistent with World Health Organization varied by country, type of website, and search engine. CONCLUSIONS: Despite media coverage on H1N1 influenza, relevant information for prevention is not easily found on the web. Strategies to improve information delivery to the general public through this channel should be improved. BioMed Central 2010-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC2955000/ /pubmed/20854690 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-561 Text en Copyright ©2010 Gesualdo et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Correspondence Gesualdo, Francesco Romano, Mariateresa Pandolfi, Elisabetta Rizzo, Caterina Ravà, Lucilla Lucente, Daniela Tozzi, Alberto E Surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of World Health Organization recommendations on prevention |
title | Surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of World Health Organization recommendations on prevention |
title_full | Surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of World Health Organization recommendations on prevention |
title_fullStr | Surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of World Health Organization recommendations on prevention |
title_full_unstemmed | Surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of World Health Organization recommendations on prevention |
title_short | Surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of World Health Organization recommendations on prevention |
title_sort | surfing the web during pandemic flu: availability of world health organization recommendations on prevention |
topic | Correspondence |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955000/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20854690 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-10-561 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT gesualdofrancesco surfingthewebduringpandemicfluavailabilityofworldhealthorganizationrecommendationsonprevention AT romanomariateresa surfingthewebduringpandemicfluavailabilityofworldhealthorganizationrecommendationsonprevention AT pandolfielisabetta surfingthewebduringpandemicfluavailabilityofworldhealthorganizationrecommendationsonprevention AT rizzocaterina surfingthewebduringpandemicfluavailabilityofworldhealthorganizationrecommendationsonprevention AT ravalucilla surfingthewebduringpandemicfluavailabilityofworldhealthorganizationrecommendationsonprevention AT lucentedaniela surfingthewebduringpandemicfluavailabilityofworldhealthorganizationrecommendationsonprevention AT tozzialbertoe surfingthewebduringpandemicfluavailabilityofworldhealthorganizationrecommendationsonprevention |