title: Crowdsourcing and the Accuracy of Online Information Regarding Weight Gain in Pregnancy: A Descriptive Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Excess weight gain affects nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States and is a strong risk factor for adverse maternal and fetal outcomes, including long-term obesity. The Internet is a prominent source of information during pregnancy; however, the accuracy of this online information is unknown.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify, characterize, and assess the accuracy of frequently accessed webpages containing information about weight gain during pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive study was used to identify and search frequently used phrases related to weight gain during pregnancy on the Google search engine. The first 10 webpages of each query were characterized by type and then assessed for accuracy and completeness, as compared to Institute of Medicine guidelines, using crowdsourcing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 114 queries were searched, yielding 305 unique webpages. Of these webpages, 181 (59.3%) included information regarding weight gain during pregnancy. Out of 181 webpages, 62 (34.3%) contained no specific recommendations, 48 (26.5%) contained accurate but incomplete recommendations, 41 (22.7%) contained complete and accurate recommendations, and 22 (12.2%) were inaccurate. Webpages were most commonly from for-profit websites (112/181, 61.9%), followed by government (19/181, 10.5%), medical organizations or associations (13/181, 7.2%), and news sites (12/181, 6.6%). The largest proportion of for-profit sites contained no specific recommendations (44/112, 39.3%). Among pages that provided inaccurate information (22/181, 12.2%), 68% (15/22) were from for-profit sites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For-profit websites dominate the online space with regard to weight gain during pregnancy and largely contain incomplete, inaccurate, or no specific recommendations. This represents a significant information gap regarding an important risk factor for obesity among mothers and infants. Our findings suggest that greater clinical and public health efforts to disseminate accurate information regarding healthy weight gain during pregnancy may help prevent significant morbidity and may support healthier pregnancies among at-risk women and children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, United States. tachang@med.umich.edu.
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3580-9438
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Bianca A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5698-6505
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5467-6215
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shull
authors.forename: Michelle H
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8414-4268
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Moniz
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1510-7903
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kohatsu
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6032-534X
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Plegue
authors.forename: Kevyn
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8178-5035
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Collins-Thompson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000592:standards*; D063045:Crowdsourcing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000592:standards*; D009765:Obesity; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D057386:Search Engine; D014481:United States; D015430:Weight Gain
keywords: Internet; crowdsourcing; pregnancy; weight gain