title: Analysis of the Information Quality of Bariatric Surgery Smartphone Applications Using the Silberg Scale.
abstract: There is a paucity of literature that has evaluated the information quality of the current bariatric and obesity applications. Our objective was to evaluate the quality of currently available smartphone applications for bariatric-patient care using the Silberg scale. The two most widely used smartphone application online stores were searched in June 2014 and a total of 39 applications were evaluated. The average Silberg score of the 39 applications was 4.0 ± 1.76. The current gaps of information quality include the lack of provision of appropriate references, full disclosure of sponsorship, and accurate disclosure whether the application has been modified in the past month.
authors.affiliation: National Addictions Management Service, Institute of Mental Health, 10 Buangkok Green Medical Park, Singapore, 539747, Singapore. melvynzhangweibin@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Melvyn W B
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Level 9, Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Tower Block, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore, 119074, Singapore.
authors.forename: Roger C M
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: University Health Network, Centre for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Raed
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hawa
authors.affiliation: University Health Network, Centre for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Sanjeev
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sockalingam
mesh_terms: D050110:Bariatric Surgery; D006801:Humans; D063731:Mobile Applications; D000068997:Smartphone
keywords: Applications; Bariatric surgery; Information quality; Silberg scale; Smartphone