ArticleBMC medical informatics and decision making2013
Does googling for preconception care result in information consistent with international guidelines: a comparison of information found by Italian women of childbearing age and health professionals.
Article in BMC medical informatics and decision making, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Quality and accuracy of online nutrition-related information: a systematic review of content analysis studies.Public health nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- Large Language Models as a Consulting Hotline for Patients With Breast Cancer and Specialists in China: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2025Article
- What preconception health services would the public find when searching the internet in Australia?: results from a simulated internet-search study.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Australian women's information-seeking preferences and needs in preparation for pregnancy.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2023Article
- Public Engagement in Digital Recommendations for Promoting Healthy Parental Behaviours from Preconception through the First 1000 Days.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Preconception Care to Reduce the Risks of Overweight and Obesity in Women of Reproductive Age: An Integrative Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- Prevention of noncommunicable diseases by interventions in the preconception period: A FIGO position paper for action by healthcare practitioners.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2020Review
- Knowledge about the impact of age on fertility: a brief review.Upsala journal of medical sciences · 2020Review
- Awareness and Use of Folic Acid among Women of Childbearing Age.Annals of global health · 2019Article
- Assessment of readability, quality and popularity of online information on ureteral stents.World journal of urology · 2018Article
- Quality of websites of obstetrics and gynecology departments: a cross-sectional study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2015Article
- Web-based surveillance of public information needs for informing preconception interventions.PloS one · 2015Article
- Online health information - what the newspapers tell their readers: a systematic content analysis.BMC public health · 2014Article
- Women participating in a web-based preconception study have a high prevalence of risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2014Article
- Generic medicines: an evaluation of the accuracy and accessibility of information available on the Internet.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2013Article
- A method for the design and development of medical or health care information websites to optimize search engine results page rankings on Google.Journal of medical Internet research · 2013Article
- The internet user profile of Italian families of patients with rare diseases: a web survey.Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2013Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPreconception counseling is effective in reducing the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. The Internet is commonly used by women and health professionals to search for health information. We compared the consistency of preconception information found on the Internet with the recommendations published by American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG) simulating a web search by women of childbearing age and health professionals.
methodsWe reviewed websites resulting from a Google search performed using search strings selected by Italian women of childbearing age and health professionals. We investigated if retrieved information was consistent with AJOG recommendations for preconception care. Logistic regression was used to compare presence of consistent recommendations between women and health professionals.
resultsThe highest frequency of correct recommendations was found for folic acid supplementation (39.4% of websites). Consistency of preconception information did not significantly differ between search strategies except for folic acid supplementation. "Communities and blogs" website category provided less frequently correct recommendations compared with "Medical/Public Agency" category (i.e. folic acid supplementation (aOR 0.254; CI 0.098-0.664; p = <0.01). Commercial links, found in 60% of websites, were associated with presence of correct recommendations excepting few items (i.e. physical exercise (aOR 1.127; CI 0.331-3.840; p = 0.848).
conclusionsPreconception information found is poor and inaccurate regardless of the search is performed by women or health professionals. It is unlikely that information found on the web have any positive impact among women and health professionals in our setting. Strategies to improve preconception information on the web and education of health professionals for web searching of health information should be considered.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.