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Quality of complementary and alternative medicine information for type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional survey and quality assessment of websites
- Source :
- BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies, Vol 21, Iss 1, Pp 1-14 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Background The global prevalence of diabetes mellitus is projected to reach approximately 700 million by the year 2045, with roughly 90–95% of all diabetes cases being type 2 in nature. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) frequently seek information about complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) online. This study assessed the quality of publicly accessible websites providing consumer health information at the intersection of T2DM and CAM. Methods An online search engine (Google) was searched to identify pertinent websites containing information specific to CAM for T2DM patients, and the relevant websites were then screened with an eligibility criteria. Consumer health information found on eligible websites were then assessed for quality using the DISCERN instrument, a 16-item standardized scoring system. Results Across the 480 webpages identified, 94 unique webpages remained following deduplication, and 37 eligible webpages belonged to and were collapsed into 30 unique websites that were each assessed using the DISCERN instrument. The mean overall quality score (question 16) across all 30 assessed websites was 3.55 (SD = 0.86), and the mean summed DISCERN score was 52.40 (SD = 12.11). Eighty percent of websites presented a wide range of CAM treatment options with the associated benefits/risks of each treatment, but in 56.7% of the websites, the sources used to collect information were unreliable. Conclusion This study identified, assessed, and presents findings on the quality of online CAM information for T2DM. Although there were several high scoring websites, there was variability across most of the individual DISCERN items in the assessed websites. This study highlights the importance of awareness among healthcare providers regarding the reliability of online information about CAM treatment and management options for T2DM. Healthcare providers should be aware of patients' information seeking behaviour, guide them in navigating through the content they encounter online, and provide them with resources containing trustworthy and reliable information.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Complementary Therapies
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Cross-sectional study
media_common.quotation_subject
Alternative medicine
Type 2 diabetes
Other systems of medicine
Information assessment
Quality of information
Online search
Type 2 diabetes mellitus
medicine
Humans
Quality (business)
Aged
Quality of Health Care
DISCERN
media_common
Aged, 80 and over
Consumer Health Information
business.industry
Information seeking
Diabetes
Reproducibility of Results
Information quality
Middle Aged
medicine.disease
Data Accuracy
Cross-Sectional Studies
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2
Complementary and alternative medicine
Family medicine
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Quality Score
Female
business
RZ201-999
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 26627671
- Volume :
- 21
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f0247dca9bcb2b37409393fe0874a161