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Contents : Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association Volume 9 Number 1 Jan / Feb 2002 Research Paper s Indicators of Accuracy of Consumer Health Information on the Internet: 73 This article may not be reproduced in any way without the written consent of the publisher Hanley & Belfus Inc. A Study of Indicators Relating to Information for Managing Fever in Children in the Home DON FALLIS PHD MARTIN FRICK PHD Abstract Objectives: To identify indicators of accuracy for consumer health information on the Internet. The results will help lay people distinguish accurate from inaccurate health information on the Internet. Design: Several popular search engines (Yahoo AltaVista and Google) were used to find Web pages on the treatment of fever in children. The accuracy and completeness of these Web pages was determined by comparing their content with that of an instrument developed from authoritative sources on treating fever in children. The presence on these Web pages of a number of proposed indicators of accuracy taken from published guidelines for evaluating the quality of health information on the Internet was noted. Main Outcome Measures: Correlation between the accuracy of Web pages on treating fever in children and the presence of proposed indicators of accuracy on these pages. Likelihood ratios for the presence (and absence) of these proposed indicators. Results: One hundred Web pages were identified and characterized as more accurate or less accurate. Three indicators correlated with accuracy: displaying the HONcode logo having an organization domain and displaying a copyright. Many proposed indicators taken from published guidelines did not correlate with accuracy (e.g. the author being identified and the author having medical credentials) or inaccuracy (e.g. lack of currency and advertising). Conclusions: This method provides a systematic way of identifying indicators that are correlated with the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of health information on the Internet. Three such indicators have been identified in this study. Identifying such indicators and informing the providers and consumers of health information about them would be valuable for public health care. s J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2002 9:73 79. Millions of people now use the Internet to gather health information.1 It is important for the health and well-being of these people and for the societies to which they belong that the information they acquire Affiliation of the authors: University of Arizona Tucson Arizona. This work was supported by a research grant award from the Association for Library and Information Science Education and by a faculty research grant from the University of Arizona. Correspondence and reprint requests: Don Fallis PhD School of Information Resources and Library Science University of Arizona 1515 East First Street Tucson AZ 85719 e-mail: fallis@email.arizona.edu . Received for publication: 5/11/01 accepted for publication: 9/19/01. in this way be on the whole accurate.2 Much of the consumer health information on the Internet is accurate. However studies have shown that some of this information is not accurate.3 6 The present study is part of a project to help lay people distinguish accurate from inaccurate consumer health information on the Internet.7 8 In a recent study Impicciatore et al.4 looked at the accuracy of information on the treatment of fever in children. According to them only a few of the 41 Web pages we reviewed gave complete and accurate information for such a common and widely discussed condition. Thus Impicciatore et al. established that there is a problem with inaccurate consumer health information on the Internet. 74 FALLIS FRICK Consumer Health Information on the Internet To help Internet users to avoid this inaccurate information a number of authors and organizations have published guidelines for evaluating the quality of health information on the Internet.9 11 These guidelines typically include lists of indicators that are intended to help Internet users determine the accuracy of Web sites. For example the medical credentials of the author of a Web site are supposed to be an indicator of accuracy. Also an out-of-date Web site and a lack of advertising on a Web site are supposed to be indicators of inaccuracy. Of course these guidelines can only help Internet users to avoid inaccurate information if the indicators really are correlated with accuracy (or inaccuracy). Unfortunately there is currently no empirical data to support the claim that these indicators are correlated with accuracy (or inaccuracy). In fact a recent study12 casts doubt on the reliability of at least one of the proposed indicators of accuracy (namely positive ratings from services that evaluate medical information on the Internet). The aim of the current study is to test empirically several of the proposed indicators of accuracy. Following Impicciato

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