The Quality of Websites Related to Hypertension in Iranian Internet Space

Abstract

Background: Today physicians and other health-related service providers are trying to provide information and training through cyberspace to their patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the quality of the Persian websites related to hypertension.

Methods: To identify Persian hypertension related websites in a descriptive cross-sectional study, we started our search in cyberspace using the key words. The keywords that were used are the same as the words that patients or their families use to obtain information about hypertension. The First 50 Google and Yahoo search results, all related links and related websites are listed in the Ministry of Health and Medical Education were examined. Then, the quality of these sites were evaluated based on the scale of Discern and Silberg instruments.

Results: As a result, a total of 281 websites were retrieved. Analysis revealed that 62(22%) of these unique websites contained information relevant to hypertension. Seventy nine percent of health related websites had academic or governmental origin, however, only 9% of these websites contained information relevant to hypertension. “Heart center belonging to Tehran University of Medical Sciences” was ranked first based on the Silberg and DISCERN instruments, with scors 7 (from total 9) and 55 (from total 80), respectively.

Conclusions: This study showed that, according to the data collecgted and analyzed via Silberg and DISCERN instruments, the quality of Persian websites related to HTN is “low”. According to evidence-based medicine, despite so many barriers to the internet information reaching its necessary to expand health-related Web sites.