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Using the Google™ Search Engine for Health Information: Is There a Problem? Case Study: Supplements for Cancer
Hannah C Cai1, Leanne E King2, Johanna T Dwyer1
1Frances Stern Nutrition Center, Tufts Medical Center and Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
Current Developments in Nutrition
|May 3, 2021
Summary
Online searches for "supplements for cancer" yield mixed-quality information. The Google™ search engine may not be ideal for finding reliable dietary supplement and cancer health information due to numerous advertisements and variable result quality.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Nutrition Science
- Oncology
Background:
- Online health information is widely accessed.
- Assessing the quality of online health information is crucial for patient safety.
- Dietary supplements are frequently researched by cancer patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the quality of online health and nutrition information regarding cancer supplements.
- To assess the reliability of search engine results for this topic.
Main Methods:
- Conducted a Google™ search for "supplements for cancer".
- Scored 160 relevant search results using the Health Information Quality Index (HIQI).
- Analyzed the correlation between result quality and search ranking, and noted the number of advertisements.
Main Results:
- The median and mean HIQI scores for the 160 results were 8 out of 12.
- One-quarter of the results were classified as high quality (scores 10-12).
- No correlation was found between high-quality scores and earlier search result placement; 496 advertisements were also present.
Conclusions:
- Google™ searches for cancer supplements may provide suboptimal information.
- The search engine's algorithms may not prioritize the highest quality health information.
- Further investigation into search engine efficacy for health-related queries is warranted.
Keywords:
Google searchHealth Information Quality Index (HIQI)advertisementauthoritative informationcommercialnutritiononlinerankingMore Related Videos
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