title: [Glucocorticoid therapy: what is the information sought by patients? Traffic analysis of the website cortisone-info.fr].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  About 1% of the general population are receiving systemic glucocorticoids. The information about this treatment sought by patients is unknown.
  
  
  METHODS
  The website www.cortisone-info.fr aims to provide therapeutic information about glucocorticoids and glucocorticoid therapy. It was posted on January 16, 2012. The information available on the website is documented and based on the recent medical literature. The website is made of 43 pages divided into five main sections (generalities about glucocorticoids, adverse events, measures associated with glucocorticoid therapy, discontinuation of glucocorticoids and, situations requiring attention). The website traffic between February 1st, 2012 and January 4, 2013 was analyzed using Google Analytics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study period, the website was visited by 67,496 people (average number of visitors per day: 33 in February 2012, 326 in December 2012). The number of page views was 230,496 or an average of 3.5 pages per visitor. Of these 230,496 page views, 145,431 (63.1%) were related to adverse events and 37,722 (16.4%) were related to generalities about glucocorticoids (e.g., what is cortisone? For which disease? How does it work?). Information particularly sought by visitors was related to the diet to follow during glucocorticoid therapy (page accessed 11,946 times), data about what cortisone is (page accessed 11,829 times) and the effects of glucocorticoids on weight (page accessed 10,442 times).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Knowledge of glucocorticoid-treated patients' expectations may help physicians to optimize information they give, thereby helping to reduce patients' concerns about glucocorticoids and to improve adherence to the treatment.
authors.affiliation: Service de médecine interne, hôpital Saint-Antoine, AP-HP, 184, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, 75012 Paris, France.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Poisson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Six
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Morin
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fardet
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004032:Diet; D004346:Drug Information Services; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010353:Patient Education as Topic
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids