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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Exp Med. Nov 20, 2015; 5(4): 244-250
Published online Nov 20, 2015. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v5.i4.244
Published online Nov 20, 2015. doi: 10.5493/wjem.v5.i4.244
How reliable is online diffusion of medical information targeting patients and families?
Pedro Xavier-Elsas, Department of Immunology, Instituto de Microbiologia Prof. Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21941-590, Brazil
Sandra Epifânio Bastos, Allergy Division, Department of Pediatrics, Instituto Nacional de Saúde da Mulher, da Criança e do Adolescente Fernandes Figueira (IFF), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, CEP 22250-020, Brazil
Maria Ignez C Gaspar-Elsas, Department of Pediatrics, Instituto Nacional de Saúde da Mulher, da Criança e do Adolescente Fernandes Figueira (IFF), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro, CEP 22250-020, Brazil
Author contributions: Gaspar Elsas MIC conceived the study, designed the search and analysis strategy and carried out searches and analyses, with the help of Bastos SE; Xavier-Elsas P reviewed the data as well as the literature in the field, and wrote the original manuscript and its revised version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that there are no conflicting interests (commercial, personal, political, intellectual, religious or otherwise) that are related to the work as submitted and revised, or would affect its publication.
Data sharing statement: Not applicable.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Pedro Xavier-Elsas, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, Instituto de Microbiologia Prof. Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), UFRJ, CCS, Bloco I, Room I-2-066, Rio de Janeiro, CEP 21941-590, Brazil. pxelsas@micro.ufrj.br
Telephone: +55-21-25608344-162 Fax: +55-21-25608344
Received: May 8, 2015
Peer-review started: May 9, 2015
First decision: July 10, 2015
Revised: August 25, 2015
Accepted: September 10, 2015
Article in press: November 4, 2015
Published online: November 20, 2015
Peer-review started: May 9, 2015
First decision: July 10, 2015
Revised: August 25, 2015
Accepted: September 10, 2015
Article in press: November 4, 2015
Published online: November 20, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: We analyzed how reproducible is online diffusion of a unique instrument, the “Ten Warning Signs of Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases”, to define whether information made available to physicians, families and support/advocacy groups through the internet adheres to accepted scientific standards. The results show that this instrument is diffused through many sites, but the actual scientific contents often depart substantially from their purported model. This raises concerns about the quality of scientific information provided online on medical matters, and on the need for corrective mechanisms in an age when the public is increasingly dependent on the internet as primary source of knowledge.