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Truth or Advertising: Back Pain Information on the Internet

The web can bring a wealth of information to anyone. This study suggests that, as far as information about back pain is concerned, it can also bring a wealth of misinformation.

This study tracked information on back pain on the Internet over a two-year period. The authors originally identified 74 web sites on back pain by doing a search using the terms "back pain" and "back problems." The research team included medical and research experts. They focused on analyzing the quality of the site's information. They did not consider design of web pages or ease of use in their analysis.

So how did the information measure up? Companies produced almost half of the sites, and about 20% were produced by health care providers. A whopping 80% of the sites were focused on advertising. Thirty-nine sites promoted products.

The advertising focus is not necessarily bad, as long as the information is factual and useful. However, the researchers rated only nine sites (about 12%) as high quality. Of the remaining sites, 68% were rated fair, and 20% were rated as poor. Only 27 sites (37%) were found to contain information based on cited references. And when it came to recommending the sites to people with back pain, only four sites (5%) were highly recommended by the research team. (Some of the sites were meant for doctors and would not be recommended for patients no matter how high their quality.)

Those ratings were from 1996. Internet information probably improved over the next two years, right? Wrong. Twenty sites were no longer in existence in early 1999, a little over two years after the first review. Of those 20, 13 had been produced or sponsored by nonprofit groups, and none by health care providers. Only 35% of them had focused on advertising. However, none of the 20 sites had been rated as high quality by the research team.

Of the remaining sites, 85% now focused on advertising. Only seven sites were now rated as high quality. Four were recommended for patients with back pain, four for health care providers, and one for the general public.

Clearly, good information on back pain can be found on the Internet. But most web surfers won't have the medical background to sort out the information they find. The authors conclude that patients need to be aware of the misinformation out there--and that doctors need to help patients sort through the avalanche of information facing patients on the web.

References: Linda Li, BSc, PT, MSc, et al. Surfing for Back Pain Patients: The Nature and Quality of Back Pain Information on the Internet. In Spine. March 2001. Vol. 26. No. 5. Pp. 545-557.

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