ArticleArchives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique2023
Quality evaluation of health information about breast cancer treatment found on WeChat public accounts.
Article in Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Quality of Cancer-Related Information on New Media (2014-2023): Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- Comparative readability of information on different treatment options for breast cancer, based on WeChat public accounts.PloS one · 2025Article
- Information quality assessment and content analysis of dementia prevention on WeChat: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Current status of electronic health literacy among pregnant women with gestational diabetes mellitus and their perceptions of online health information: a mixed-methods study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Quality assessment of temporomandibular disorders-related information on Chinese social media: A cross-sectional study.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
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWith growing cases of breast cancer, WeChat public account, an important information publishing platform of WeChat, has become a breast cancer treatment health information provider to a huge audience. It is essential for health information to possess high-level accuracy and reliability. This work evaluates the quality of health information on breast cancer treatment in WeChat public accounts (WPAs), to benefit the patients while making treatment decisions and provide WPA authors with suggestions on publishing high-quality treatment health information.
methodsWith "breast cancer" as keywords, searches were implemented on weixin.sogou.com and the WeChat app. The WPAs oriented to patients with breast cancer were selected, and the four latest articles of each WPA were included in a set to be evaluated with DISCERN.
resultsA total of 37 WPAs and 136 articles published by them were included. The accounts operated by individual users were 54%. The median of overall quality of 136 articles was 44 (interquartile range = 10.75) and ranked as "fair", of which only 28 (21%) were of "good" or higher quality. Among these articles, 74 (54%) were related to medical treatments, and 13 of them mentioned clinical trials; 36 (27%) dealt with surgery. 101 (74.26%) omitted additional sources of information; 102 (75%) did not explicitly suggest shared decision-making. A significant difference was not found in the dimensions "reliability of the articles" and "specific details of information on treatment choices" between the distinct categories of account subjects and various treatment options (P > 0.05).
conclusionsThe quality of the articles on breast cancer treatment health information in WPAs was moderate. WPA producers should focus on improving the reliability of information and providing more details on treatment options, to assist patients in making optimal decisions during treatment.
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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.