Peter A. Bath*, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom Victoria Dobson, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom Track: Research Presentation Topic: Health information on the web: Supply and Demand Presentation Type: Oral presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: Sol Principe Room: C - Almudaina Date: 2014-10-10 02:50 PM – 03:35 PM Last modified: 2014-09-03

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Background: Patients are taking an increasingly active role in decision-making and in the management of their healthcare. However, to do this effectively, they require access to appropriate information. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a debilitating condition, the management of which can be improved through patient education and access to appropriate information. The Web is an important source of health information for people with IBS; however, the quality of health information on the Web can be variable.
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality and usability of information on the Web regarding IBS and to examine the extent to which this information meets the needs of patients.
Methods: A disease-specific IBS evaluation tool was developed based a review of the information needs of people with IBS. A sample of 50 websites was selected and evaluated using three generic evaluation tools (HON-Code, DISCERN and EQIP) and the IBS tool. Rankings of the web-sites were developed for each of the four tools and compared using Spearman’s Rank Correlation coefficient. Data were analysed using appropriate parametric and non-parametric tests using SPSS.
Results: The information found on IBS was of variable quality, although there were noticeable differences among the four evaluation tools. Using the HON-Code tool, 66% of the sites scored ≥ 50%, compared to 84% of the sites scored with the DISCERN tool, 98% of sites with the EQIP tool and 66% of sites with the IBS tool. The three top-rated sites were Aboutibs.org, the Mayo clinic and Patient.co.uk. The three lowest ranked web-sites were About-irritablebowel-syndrome.net, About-irritablebowelsyndrome.com and Oxypowder.com. However there was no significant difference in the rankings of web-sites between commercial and non-commercial organisations (p=0.198). There was no significant relationship between the ranking of sites by web search engines and the quality of information they provide (p=0.382). In terms of usability, the EQIP tool (mean=4 minutes: 35 seconds; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = 3m:59s-5m:11s) took significantly less time to evaluate the web-sites than the other tools and the IBS tool took significantly longer (mean = 7m:10s; 95% CI = 6m:23s-7m:58s). There was a moderate level of agreement in the rankings of the web sites across the four tools (Kendall’s W= 0.479; p<0.001). There were significant correlations between the rankings generated by the HON and DISCERN, EQIP and DISCERN, IBS and DISCERN, and IBS and EQIP tools. No significant correlation was demonstrated between the HON and EQIP or the HON and IBS tools.

Conclusions: The study provides new insights into the quality of information available on the Web for people with IBS. Due to the variable quality of information available, healthcare professionals need to be selective in the web sites they recommend to patients. The IBS tool provides useful information on how well web sites meet the information needs of people with the condition, although this tool may be less feasible for use by patients themselves.