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Indicators of Accurate Health Information on the Internet on the Use of Momordica Charantia in Diabetes Mellitus*
OBJECTIVES: The increasing use of the Internet as a source of health information makes the accuracy of such information crucial. An example is the use of the widely advertised bitter melon (Momordica charantia) in treating diabetes despite its unproven efficacy. This study aims to assess the accurac...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies
2017
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7784206/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33442079 http://dx.doi.org/10.15605/jafes.032.01.03 |
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author | Hernandez, Dan Philip Isip-Tan, Iris Thiele |
author_facet | Hernandez, Dan Philip Isip-Tan, Iris Thiele |
author_sort | Hernandez, Dan Philip |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: The increasing use of the Internet as a source of health information makes the accuracy of such information crucial. An example is the use of the widely advertised bitter melon (Momordica charantia) in treating diabetes despite its unproven efficacy. This study aims to assess the accuracy of websites containing information on bitter melon’s role in diabetes, to search for the presence of the proposed quality indicators, and to determine their correlation with accuracy. METHODOLOGY: An Internet search was used to generate a list of websites. The accuracy of each website was determined by comparing its content with that of a tool that was developed from authoritative sources. The presence of the proposed quality indicators, taken from published guidelines, was then correlated with accuracy. RESULTS: Of the 158 websites identified, 10 (6.33%) were characterized as “most accurate” and 21 (13.3%) as “somewhat accurate.” The identified indicators of accuracy were the HONcode logo (OR 12.1, p=0.011); the author, identified as a healthcare professional (OR=6.11, p=0.008); and a citation from a peer-reviewed medical literature (OR 2.92, p=0.029). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that most of the Internet-based information on bitter melon’s role in diabetes is inaccurate. The public can use several indicators of accurate information on the use of bitter melon in diabetes to improve health care. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7784206 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-77842062021-01-12 Indicators of Accurate Health Information on the Internet on the Use of Momordica Charantia in Diabetes Mellitus* Hernandez, Dan Philip Isip-Tan, Iris Thiele J ASEAN Fed Endocr Soc Original Article OBJECTIVES: The increasing use of the Internet as a source of health information makes the accuracy of such information crucial. An example is the use of the widely advertised bitter melon (Momordica charantia) in treating diabetes despite its unproven efficacy. This study aims to assess the accuracy of websites containing information on bitter melon’s role in diabetes, to search for the presence of the proposed quality indicators, and to determine their correlation with accuracy. METHODOLOGY: An Internet search was used to generate a list of websites. The accuracy of each website was determined by comparing its content with that of a tool that was developed from authoritative sources. The presence of the proposed quality indicators, taken from published guidelines, was then correlated with accuracy. RESULTS: Of the 158 websites identified, 10 (6.33%) were characterized as “most accurate” and 21 (13.3%) as “somewhat accurate.” The identified indicators of accuracy were the HONcode logo (OR 12.1, p=0.011); the author, identified as a healthcare professional (OR=6.11, p=0.008); and a citation from a peer-reviewed medical literature (OR 2.92, p=0.029). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that most of the Internet-based information on bitter melon’s role in diabetes is inaccurate. The public can use several indicators of accurate information on the use of bitter melon in diabetes to improve health care. Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies 2017-04-11 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC7784206/ /pubmed/33442079 http://dx.doi.org/10.15605/jafes.032.01.03 Text en © 2017 Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International. |
spellingShingle | Original Article Hernandez, Dan Philip Isip-Tan, Iris Thiele Indicators of Accurate Health Information on the Internet on the Use of Momordica Charantia in Diabetes Mellitus* |
title | Indicators of Accurate Health Information on the Internet on the Use of Momordica Charantia in Diabetes Mellitus*
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title_full | Indicators of Accurate Health Information on the Internet on the Use of Momordica Charantia in Diabetes Mellitus*
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title_fullStr | Indicators of Accurate Health Information on the Internet on the Use of Momordica Charantia in Diabetes Mellitus*
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title_full_unstemmed | Indicators of Accurate Health Information on the Internet on the Use of Momordica Charantia in Diabetes Mellitus*
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title_short | Indicators of Accurate Health Information on the Internet on the Use of Momordica Charantia in Diabetes Mellitus*
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title_sort | indicators of accurate health information on the internet on the use of momordica charantia in diabetes mellitus* |
topic | Original Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7784206/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33442079 http://dx.doi.org/10.15605/jafes.032.01.03 |
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