ArticleBMC oral health2017
Evaluation of the content quality of websites for recurrent aphthous ulcers and oral lichen planus.
Article in BMC oral health, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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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
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Internet Health Information-Seeking Trend of Urinary Incontinence in Mainland China: Infodemiology Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Analyzing Online Search Trends for Kidney, Prostate, and Bladder Cancers in China: Infodemiology Study Using Baidu Search Data (2011-2023).JMIR cancer · 2025Article
- Quality Assessment of Online Health Information on Thyroid Cancer in the Arabic Language: A Cross-Sectional Study.Cureus · 2024Article
- Arabic Web-Based Information on Oral Lichen Planus: Content Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Perceptions on Oral Ulcers From Facebook Page Categories: Observational Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Online Public Attention Toward Premature Ejaculation in Mainland China: Infodemiology Study Using the Baidu Index.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Article
- Quality and readability of the dental information obtained by patients on Internet: criteria for selecting medical consultation websites.Medicina oral, patologia oral y cirugia bucal · 2020Article
- Patient-centered web-based information on oral lichen planus: Quality and readability.Medicina oral, patologia oral y cirugia bucal · 2019Article
- Assessment of the quality of online information on dietary recommendations for inflammatory bowel disease.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe Internet is one of the most popular resources for people to obtain medical information; however, only a limited number of studies have reported the quality of the available health information related to oral mucosal diseases. The present study aimed to evaluate the quality of information on websites for recurrent aphthous ulcers (RAU) and oral lichen planus (OLP), in both Chinese and English.
methodsCommon search engines, BaiDu, Google, and Yahoo in Chinese; and Bing, Google, and Yahoo in English were used to identify websites providing content related to the oral mucosal diseases. The first 100 links for keywords "recurrent aphthous ulcers" and "oral lichen planus" were visited and content was downloaded within 24 h. Two separate trained researchers use the validated DISCERN rating instrument and JAMA benchmarks to evaluate the content. The rating scores were analyzed and the quality was assessed according to the scores and content of websites.
resultsA total of 145 websites for RAU and 128 of OLP were analyzed. Based on the DISCERN instrument, the quality of the content in websites for both diseases, whether in English or Chinese, was not high, generally scoring 2 to 3 (max. 5). Only 13 of the RAU websites and 21 of the OLP websites fulfilled the four criteria of the JAMA benchmarks. Generally, the scores of the English websites were higher than those of the Chinese websites. During the twelve searches, only four (Yahoo of RAU in Chinese, Bing and Yahoo of RAU in English, and Google of OLP in Chinese) showed moderate correlation between the website's ranking and their rating scores. People cannot obtain high quality medical information if they only look at the top ranked sites on the viewing lists. Websites belonging to universities or medical centers had relatively higher scores compared with the others.
conclusionsThe quality of the content on websites relating to RAU and OLP in Chinese and English was moderate. More good quality websites and information are needed in the future.
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