An Evaluation of the Source and Content of Dupuytren’s Disease Information Available on the Internet

Introduction The internet continues to expand in both size and number of users, and patients are using the internet with increasing frequency to research orthopedic conditions and treatment options. Despite the prevalence of patients searching for medical information, the quality of the available information varies substantially. The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and accuracy of the information available on the internet for Dupuytren’s disease. We hypothesized that the informational content found on the internet regarding this condition would be of acceptable quality. Methods The search phrasing “‘Dupuytren’ OR ‘Dupuytren’s’” was used to mimic how patients would likely search for information on the disease. These terms were entered into the five English-language search engines with the most frequent use on the internet. On each search engine, the first 50 URLs were recorded, including sponsored sites. The 250 total sites were filtered to remove duplicate sites and URLs linking to other search engines, resulting in a final list of 84 websites for informational scoring. A previously published information evaluation protocol was used to grade each website. Each site was graded according to these guidelines by two authors and scored based on authorship, content, disease summary, treatment options, pathogenesis, complications, and results. A third author resolved any conflict on authorship or content before analysis. The resultant “informational value” is the sum of the disease summary, treatment options, pathogenesis, complications, and results and can range from 0-100. Results The mean total information score for all sites was 47.5 out of 100 points. Forty-three (51.2%) of the websites evaluated were authored by a physician or academic institution, and thirty-four (40.5%) of the sites were commercial in nature. The final seven websites (8.3%) had nonphysician, unidentified, or lay authorship. Physician and academic institution authored websites had an average informational score of 55.5 out of 100 points, compared to 39.7 out of 100 for all other websites. This difference was statistically significant (p <0.01). The mean informational score for the 10 sponsored websites was 16.4 out of 100. Conclusion We concluded that internet information on Dupuytren’s disease is of poor quality and incomplete. Academic and physician authored sites have higher quality than commercial sites, but significant room for improvement still exists. Patients should be advised to identify the authorship of the websites they obtain information from and avoid advertisements and commercial sites.