Web resources on diabetic eye disease mostly poor quality

NEW YORK, Dec 19, (Agencies) Diabetes-related eye disease is a leading cause of blindness, but finding accurate, readable information about it online isn’t easy, a US study finds.

Researchers rated 11 top searchengine-ranked websites about diabetic retinopathy. They found that some were accurate and complete but too technical, while others were easy to read but lacked in quality. None scored highly on all of the standards examined.

“While this paper specifically pertains to diabetic retinopathy, a very common eye disorder, the takeaway message about the general quality of online medical resources likely pertains to all medical conditions,” said Dr Christopher Starr, of the NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Patients increasingly rely on the internet for health-related queries, and past research shows that online information can influence patients’ decisions about their care, the study team notes in JAMA Ophthalmology.

To assess the information available online, researchers designed a 26-question survey based on topics a doctor would discuss with a patient diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy. Three ophthalmology experts used the survey to assess whether a website answered all the questions a patient would have about the condition and possible treatments.

Wikipedia was the top-scoring site, with information that was the most complete and relevant to patients, while WebMD ranked the lowest on these measures. Websites set up by American Optometric Association and American Academy of Ophthalmology also got poor scores.

“Wikipedia has always done better than a lot of other (encyclopedia) websites out there. It does surprise me that some of the websites that are written by ophthalmology organizations did not score better,” noted Dr Rahul Khurana of Northern California Retina Vitreous Associates in Mountain View, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study.