Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 20, 2026
Portable Paper-Based Immunoassay Combined with Smartphone Application for Colorimetric and Quantitative Detection of Dengue NS1 Antigen
Published on: January 26, 2024
Evaluation of dengue-related health information on the internet
Navya R Rao1, Manaswini Mohapatra, Swayamprabha Mishra
1Center for Public Health Informatics, Asian Institute of Public Health in Bhuabneswar, India.
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to examine the quality of dengue-related health information on the Internet. Three raters used the keyword dengue to search the Google, Yahoo!, and Bing search engines during August 2011. The first 20 websites from each search engine were examined for a total of 60 sites. Duplicate, nonfunctional, non-English, and nonoperational websites were excluded from the study, resulting in 36 sites for final analysis. The 16-item DISCERN tool was used to evaluate the quality of dengue-related health information on the Internet. Chi-square analysis and analysis of variance were performed to compare the DISCERN scores. Inter-rater reliability analysis showed significant differences in the level of agreement among the three raters. The 36 unique websites were categorized into .com, .edu, .gov, .org, and other sites. The .com sites had the lowest DISCERN scores. Educating consumers on how to find and recognize valid health information on the Internet may lead to better informed decision making.
