@Article{info:doi/10.2196/11358,
author="Knoepke, Christopher E
and Slack, D Hogan
and Ingle, M Pilar
and Matlock, Daniel D
and Marzec, Lucas N",
title="Quality of Medical Advice Provided Between Members of a Web-Based Message Board for Patients With Implantable Defibrillators: Mixed-Methods Study",
journal="JMIR Cardio",
year="2018",
month="Dec",
day="04",
volume="2",
number="2",
pages="e11358",
keywords="education of patients; information sharing; implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, data accuracy",
abstract="Background: Patients use Web-based medical information to understand medical conditions and treatments. A number of efforts have been made to understand the quality of professionally created content; however, none have described the quality of advice being provided between anonymous members of Web-based message boards. Objective: The objective of this study was to characterize the quality of medical information provided between members of an anonymous internet message board addressing treatment with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). Methods: We quantitatively analyzed 2 years of discussions using a mixed inductive-deductive framework, first, for instances in which members provided medical advice and, then, for the quality of the advice. Results: We identified 82 instances of medical advice within 127 discussions. Advice covered 6 topical areas: (1) Device information, (2) Programming, (3) Cardiovascular disease, (4) Lead management, (5) Activity restriction, and (6) Management of other conditions. Across all advice, 50{\%} (41/82) was deemed generally appropriate, 24{\%} (20/82) inappropriate for most patients, 6{\%} (5/82) controversial, and 20{\%} (16/82) without sufficient context. Proportions of quality categories varied between topical areas. We have included representative examples. Conclusions: The quality of advice shared between anonymous members of a message board regarding ICDs varied considerably according to topical area and the specificity of advice. This report provides a model to describe the quality of the available Web-based patient-generated material. ",
issn="2561-1011",
doi="10.2196/11358",
url="http://cardio.jmir.org/2018/2/e11358/",
url="https://doi.org/10.2196/11358",
url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31758775"
}