Background
Portal | Goal | Selection guidelines for included sites |
---|---|---|
Canadian Health Network
| "CHN's mission is to support Canadians in making informed choices about their health, by providing access to multiple sources of credible and practical e-health information." | • Does the organization have timely and credible information on health promotion and disease prevention? • Is authorship clearly stated? • If the source is not a professionally or legally accredited authority, is there sufficient supporting information to establish an informed perspective. • If a non-professional gives medical information, is this fact clearly stated? • Are original sources clearly referenced? • Are claims relating to the benefits of a specific health promotion/disease prevention services supported by appropriate, balanced evidence? • Is the content original, and of sufficient depth to warrant a link? • Is the resource relevant to the CHN mission statement? • Is the information updated or reviewed on an adequate basis given the content? • If the resource only presents one-side of a controversial issue, is this made explicit? |
HealthInsite
| "(HealthInsite) aims to improve the health of Australians by providing easy access to quality information about human health." | Sites must have a written policy and procedure that • Includes a policy that each resource is authored by a person or group with appropriate qualifications/experience • Includes a procedure for appropriate attribution of resources • Includes a review process. The policy needs to cite positions/qualifications/names of who reviews • Details the final approval process (including responsibility/qualifications) • The date of publication and, where appropriate, date of previous versions must also be given. |
Medline Plus
| "MedlinePlus is designed to help you find appropriate, authoritative health information." | • The source of the content is established, respected and dependable. A list of advisory board members or consultants is published on the site. • The information provided is appropriate to the audience level, well-organized and easy to use. • Information is from primary resources (i.e., textual material, abstracts, Web pages). • The primary purpose of the Web page is educational and not to sell a product or service. • The source for the contents of the Web page(s) and the entity responsible for maintaining the Web site is clear. • Information is current or an update date is included. • The site provides unique information to the topic with a minimum of redundancy and overlap between resources. |
NHS Direct Online
| To provide high quality health information and advice for the people of England and Wales | No information provided. |
Problems
|
Interventions
|
Reference
|
---|---|---|
Alzheimer's disease | Galantamine | 8 |
Bulimia | Antidepressants versus psychological treatment versus both | 9 |
Jet lag | Melatonin | 10 |
Lumbar disc prolapse | Surgery | 11 |
Malaria prevention | Mefloquine | 12 |
Nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy | Treatments | 13,14* |
Schizophrenia | Haloperidol | 15 |
Vaginal yeast infection | Oral versus intravaginal antifungal agents | 16 |
Methods
Alzheimer's disease | alzheimer +alzheimer +galantamine alzheimer and galantamine/reminyl galantamine alzheimer alzheimer galantamine/reminyl galantamine/galanthamine reminyl |
Bulimia | +bulimia +treatment bulimia and treatment bulimia treatment bulimia |
Jet lag | jeg lag and melatonin jet lag melatonin jet lag melatonin |
Lumbar disc prolapse | lumbar disc prolapse herniated disk/disc AND surgery herniated disc/disk slipped disc/disk discectomy |
Malaria prevention | mefloquine and malaria mefloquine malaria mefloquine malaria |
Nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy | morning sickness morning sickness and treatment pregnancy nausea early pregnancy nausea |
Schizophrenia | +haloperidol +schizophrenia schizophrenia and haloperidol schizophrenia haloperidol haloperidol schizophrenia |
Vaginal yeast infection | +yeast +infection +treatment +thrush +treatment yeast infection and treatment yeast infection treatment yeast infection thrush candidiasis |
Statements coded as expressing effect |
You may benefit from the medication
It has helped many patients
It is said to improve symptoms
|
Statements coded as not expressing effect |
The treatment can be used
Treatment may include
Your doctor may recommend the treatment
|
Statements coded as "effective" |
Is effective/highly effective/(often) very effective
Has proven effective/helpful/beneficial
Especially helpful
Has been found/reported to be helpful/effective
Has an effect on the symptoms
Improves the symptoms
Enjoys a good success rate
Works/(usually) works well
Usually successful
Is the most effective drug
X was more effective than Y
Was better than other therapies and better than no treatment
Strong evidence on the effectiveness of X when compared with Y
In clinical trials, some people who took the drug compared to individuals who took a placebo showed some improvement
People treated with the drug showed improvements in symptoms
Reduces the PANSS scores significantly more than placebo
You can protect yourself against X by taking Y
Can clear up your symptoms in a couple of days and cure the infection within a week
Many studies have shown the treatment to be useful/can ease the symptoms
Many people respond to the treatment
Most people do very well after treatment
These treatments have been beneficial to many women
Relieves symptoms in the majority of properly selected patients
Have helped many patients
Is recommended/should be recommended
These drugs all had similar ability to relieve the symptoms
Helps some sufferers/some people
Of some value in certain patients
|
Statements coded as "probably effective" |
There have been reports of some benefits
Appears to be helpful
Results/evidence suggest that the treatment is beneficial/has beneficial effects
|
Statements coded as "unknown effect" |
Have not been proven
Results are variable
Some studies suggest this is effective..other studies have found that it doesn't help
Effectiveness for many people is unknown
Results of studies have been inconsistent
The evidence is uncertain
The treatment is at present, an experimental approach. |
Statements coded as "not effective" | None found |
Statements coded as "probably not effective" | None found |
Statements coded as unclear |
Not all people taking these drugs benefit from them
The treatment is not always successful
For some people, the treatment may help prevent some symptoms from becoming worse
For some people, the treatment is prescribed to possibly delay the worsening of some of their symptoms
Does the treatment work? Not always
The treatment is of not more benefit than the other treatments
May help/relieve pain/improve symptoms/relieve symptoms/be a good option
Might help
Some studies have shown that (the treatment) may decrease (the symptoms)
Can help/improve symptoms/relieve symptoms
Is said to improve symptoms
The effects of the treatment varies for different people. Some will not notice any effect, while others may find that their condition improves slightly
|
Results
Qualitative information
Quantitative information
Discussion
Portal | Included hits | Information about effects | Qualitative statements about the effect of the intervention | Quantitative statements about the effect of the intervention | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Qualitative statement | Statement unclear | Statement not consistent with review | Statement consistent with review |
Quantitative statement | Cochrane review abstract | Statement incomplete and potentially misleading | Statement consistent but incomplete | Statement consistent with review | |||
Canadian Health Network
| 22 | 13 | 12 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Health-Insite
| 38 | 21 | 15 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Medline Plus
| 77 | 46 | 41 | 17 | 9 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
NHS Direct Online
| 18 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
TOTAL
|
155
|
92
|
77
|
26
|
15
|
36*
|
15
|
4
|
9
|
1
|
1
|