HOW CREDIBLE ARE THE ROMANIAN HEALTH-RELATED WEBSITES? A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
Abstract:
The aim of the study was to assess the compliance of the Romanian health websites to the
credibility criteria for health-related websites. The cross-sectional study included 317 websites selected
by simple randomization. The mean overall Health Quality Score of the Romanian health-related
websites was very low (2.8 on a scale of 9) indicating a very poor compliance with the quality criteria.
The most frequently complied with requirement was providing a feedback mechanism for the users while
several critically important criteria such as displaying a clear medical disclaimer and disclosing
conflicts of interests were rarely met. The results of this study should raise the awareness of the general
population to the risks involved in seeking health-related information on websites with a poor level of
compliance with the quality criteria developed for the health-related websites.
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