title: Gastrointestinal cancer web sites: how do they address patients' concerns?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We studied the quality of web sites containing information on gastrointestinal cancer, focusing on the way these web sites dealt with the special concerns of these patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Searching the Internet for German-language gastroenterological cancer web sites, we collected 9,947 web pages from 14 search engines. Evaluation was done with a 36-item questionnaire. Information quality, availability of the web sites, and web site attributes considering patients' concerns and potential embarrassment were analyzed using a scoring system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Belonging to 165 web sites, 1,763 of 9,947 (17.7%) web pages found by search engines provided relevant information. Five hundred forty-seven (5.5%) hits were partly relevant, and 7,637 (76.8%) were irrelevant or not available. Most web sites reported about surgery (92.1%), chemotherapy (88.5%), and radiotherapy (73.9%). Of the web sites, 46.7% (n=77), 34.6% (n=57), and 21.8% (n=36) gave information about the author(s) itself, their qualifications, and references of their information, respectively. Search engines ranked web sites giving no information on evidence-based medicine higher than other web sites, whereas web sites providing this information accurately showed higher link popularities. Patients' concerns and potential embarrassment were best addressed by gastrointestinal web sites initiated by private individuals or web sites directed to both a patient and physician audience.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  With regard to gastrointestinal cancer web sites, many search engines may be ineffective, and patient emotional needs and concerns are often disregarded. Also, physicians should guide their patients through the Internet to find high-quality information and use link-popularity-based search strategies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy, University Hospital of Freiburg, Robert-Koch-Strasse 3, 79106, Freiburg, Germany. weissenb@mst1.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weissenberger
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beranek-Chiu
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Neumann
authors.forename: Sinje
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jonassen
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bartelt
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: Gerlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Witucki
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Henne
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geissler
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fogel
mesh_terms: D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires