TY - JOUR
T1 - Does googling for preconception care result in information consistent with international guidelines
T2 - A comparison of information found by Italian women of childbearing age and health professionals
AU - Agricola, Eleonora
AU - Gesualdo, Francesco
AU - Pandolfi, Elisabetta
AU - Gonfiantini, Michaela V.
AU - Carloni, Emanuela
AU - Mastroiacovo, Pierpaolo
AU - Tozzi, Alberto E.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Background: Preconception 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. Methods. We 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. Results: The 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 =
AB - Background: Preconception 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. Methods. We 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. Results: The 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 =
KW - Adverse pregnancy outcomes
KW - Folic acid
KW - Google
KW - Health information
KW - Internet
KW - Preconception
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84872793706&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84872793706&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/1472-6947-13-14
DO - 10.1186/1472-6947-13-14
M3 - Article
C2 - 23347453
AN - SCOPUS:84872793706
VL - 13
JO - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
JF - BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
SN - 1472-6947
IS - 1
M1 - 14
ER -