Examining Internet resources on gender differences in ACL injuries: what patients are reading

Background The Internet is a popular and powerful resource used by both clinicians and patients. However, medical information on the Internet is often unregulated, biased, and of poor quality. Given the frequency of ACL injuries in young women, this topic was used as a case study to examine the information available to patients on the Internet. Methods An Internet search was performed using the top three general search engines for four different search phrases related to ACL injuries in females. The top ten sites from each search were analyzed on the basis of both website interface and a specific content scoring guide. Results A total of 35 unique websites were analyzed. The majority of websites were authored by a layperson or had an unidentified author. Readability data indicated that many sites were written at literacy levels that were too difficult for the average reader. Finally, the average content analysis score for all sites was 41.6 out of a possible 100 points (range 10–87.5); only one-third of the websites cited references for the information provided. Conclusions We found the Internet information on ACL injuries in women to be largely unsupported, outdated and too difficult for the average reader to comprehend. The average site covered less than half of the topics that we considered relevant to ACL injuries in females indicating that information available on the Internet is largely incomplete. Clinical relevance Clinicians should be aware of the deficiencies in Internet information in order to appropriately address these issues with patients.