ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2024
Examining the Type, Quality, and Content of Web-Based Information for People With Chronic Pain Interested in Spinal Cord Stimulation: Social Listening Study.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of the quality, readability, and reliability of web-based pediatric neurosurgical patient education information.Child's nervous system : ChNS : official journal of the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery · 2026Pooled it
- The Implementation of Social Media in Neurosurgery: A Systematic Review of the Literature.Acta neurochirurgica · 2025Pooled it
- Educational value of remote live-streamed training in endovascular thrombectomy: dose-response and mediation analysis.Journal of neurointerventional surgery · 2026Article
- Quality and reliability of weight management short videos on TikTok and Bilibili: cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Neuromodulation perception by the general public.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Analyzing dissemination, quality, and reliability of Chinese brain tumor-related short videos on TikTok and Bilibili: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe increased availability of web-based medical information has encouraged patients with chronic pain to seek health care information from multiple sources, such as consultation with health care providers combined with web-based information. The type and quality of information that is available on the web is very heterogeneous, in terms of content, reliability, and trustworthiness. To date, no studies have evaluated what information is available about neuromodulation on the web for patients with chronic pain.
objectiveThis study aims to explore the type, quality, and content of web-based information regarding spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for chronic pain that is freely available and targeted at health care consumers.
methodsThe social listening tool Awario was used to search Facebook (Meta Platforms, Inc), Twitter (Twitter, Inc), YouTube (Google LLC), Instagram (Meta Platforms, Inc), blogs, and the web for suitable hits with "pain" and "neuromodulation" as keywords. Quality appraisal of the extracted information was performed using the DISCERN instrument. A thematic analysis through inductive coding was conducted.
resultsThe initial search identified 2174 entries, of which 630 (28.98%) entries were eventually withheld, which could be categorized as web pages, including news and blogs (114/630, 18.1%); Reddit (Reddit, Inc) posts (32/630, 5.1%); Vimeo (Vimeo, Inc) hits (38/630, 6%); or YouTube (Google LLC) hits (446/630, 70.8%). Most posts originated in the United States (519/630, 82.4%). Regarding the content of information, 66.2% (383/579) of the entries discussed (fully discussed or partially discussed) how SCS works. In total, 55.6% (322/579) of the entries did not elaborate on the fact that there may be >1 potential treatment choice and 47.7% (276/579) did not discuss the influence of SCS on the overall quality of life. The inductive coding revealed 4 main themes. The first theme of pain and the burden of pain (1274/8886, 14.34% coding references) explained about pain, pain management, individual impact of pain, and patient experiences. The second theme included neuromodulation as a treatment approach (3258/8886, 36.66% coding references), incorporating the background on neuromodulation, patient-centered care, SCS therapy, and risks. Third, several device-related aspects (1722/8886, 19.38% coding references) were presented. As a final theme, patient benefits and testimonials of treatment with SCS (2632/8886, 29.62% coding references) were revealed with subthemes regarding patient benefits, eligibility, and testimonials and expectations.
conclusionsHealth care consumers have access to web-based information about SCS, where details about the surgical procedures, the type of material, working mechanisms, risks, patient expectations, testimonials, and the potential benefits of this therapy are discussed. The reliability, trustworthiness, and correctness of web-based sources should be carefully considered before automatically relying on the content.
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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.