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KMID : 0854720040240020224
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Korean Journal of Asthma, Allergy and Clinical Immunology
2004 Volume.24 No. 2 p.224 ~ p.228
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Bronchial Asthma Education and the Internet: The Present Situation and Future Direction
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Abstract
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Background: Recent advances in the Internet have enabled patient to search for large amounts of medical information. The Internet is easily accessible, but available information is under no guidelines or regulations in Korea. Objective: We evaluated the quality of information related to bronchial asthma on the Internet and the role in patient education with simple search technique.
Method: The search phrases "bronchial asthma" were entered into four common Internet search engines. As indicated by the search engines, web sites and the 50 most commonly encountered web documents were reviewed. An information score (IS) from Libertiny et al. was modified to assess how well the web page educated the patient about the disease.
Result: Of 110 web sites and documents, 109 were ac￢cessible. 41 (37.6%) web sites and documents were published by private practice groups. The overall mean infor￢mation score was 3.606, and only 10 (9.2%) sites had useful patient-oriented information (IS> 10). Differences in IS between 8 subgroups were not significant (P=0.075). Mis￢leading or unconventional therapeutic recommendations were recognized in 11 (10.1%) and 24 (22%) sites, respectively.
Conclusion: Patient-oriented bronchial asthma information is difficult to find on the Internet in Korea. The overall quality is poor. About one third presented information that was classified as misleading or unconventional, especially in oriental medicine sites. There is an urgent need to develop proper asthma patient educational programs, guidelines for medical web site evaluation and gateways to high quality Internet-based medical resources. (Korean J Asthma, Allergy Clin Immunol 2004;24:224-228)
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