title: The Accessibility, Usability, and Reliability of Chinese Web-Based Information on HIV/AIDS.
abstract: The present study was designed to assess the quality of Chinese-language Internet-based information on HIV/AIDS.
  
  
  
  We entered the following search terms, in Chinese, into Baidu and Sogou: "HIV/AIDS", "symptoms", and "treatment", and evaluated the first 50 hits of each query using the Minervation validation instrument (LIDA tool) and DISCERN instrument.
  
  
  
  Of the 900 hits identified, 85 websites were included in this study. The overall score of the LIDA tool was 63.7%; the mean score of accessibility, usability, and reliability was 82.2%, 71.5%, and 27.3%, respectively. Of the top 15 sites according to the LIDA score, the mean DISCERN score was calculated at 43.1 (95% confidence intervals (CI) = 37.7-49.5). Noncommercial websites showed higher DISCERN scores than commercial websites; whereas commercial websites were more likely to be found in the first 20 links obtained from each search engine than the noncommercial websites.
  
  
  
  In general, the HIV/AIDS related Chinese-language websites have poor reliability, although their accessibility and usability are fair. In addition, the treatment information presented on Chinese-language websites is far from sufficient. There is an imperative need for professionals and specialized institutes to improve the comprehensiveness of web-based information related to HIV/AIDS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China. angela_niulu@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China. luodan_csu_2011@126.com.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China. 146911042@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Medicine and Health Management, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha 410078, China. xiaosy@csu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shuiyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiao
mesh_terms: D044466:Asian People; D015658:HIV Infections; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D020407:Internet / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057386:Search Engine; D035502:Trust
keywords: HIV/AIDS; evaluation; quality; websites