Abstract
BackgroundCannabis has increasingly become an alternative treatment for chronic pain, however, there is evidence of concomitant negative health effects with its long-term usage. Patients contemplating cannabis use for pain relief commonly see information online but may not be able to identify trustworthy and accurate sources, therefore, it is imperative that healthcare practitioners play a role in assisting them in discerning the quality of information. The present study assesses the quality of web-based consumer health information available at the intersection of cannabis and pain.MethodsA cross-sectional quality assessment of website information was conducted. Three countries were searched on Google: Canada, the Netherlands, and the USA. The first 3 pages of generated websites were used in each of the 9 searches. Eligible websites contained cannabis consumer health information for pain treatment. Only English-language websites were included. Encyclopedias (i.e. Wikipedia), forums, academic journals, general news websites, major e-commerce websites, websites not publicly available, books, and video platforms were excluded. Information presented on eligible websites were assessed using the DISCERN instrument. The DISCERN instrument consists of three sections, the first focusing on the reliability of the publication, the second investigating individual aspects of the publication, and the third providing an overall averaged score.ResultsOf 270 websites identified across searches, 216 were duplicates, and 18 were excluded based on eligibility criteria, resulting in 36 eligible websites. The average summed DISCERN score was 48.85 out of 75.00 (SD = 8.13), and the average overall score (question 16) was 3.10 out of 5.00 (SD = 0.62). These overall scores were calculated from combining the scores for questions 1 through 15 in the DISCERN instrument for each website. Websites selling cannabis products/services scored the lowest, while health portals scored the highest.ConclusionThese findings indicate that online cannabis consumer health information for the treatment/management of pain presents biases to readers. These biases included websites: (1) selectively citing studies that supported the benefits associated with cannabis use, while neglecting to mention those discussing its risks, and (2) promoting cannabis as “natural” with the implication that this equated to “safe”. Healthcare providers should be involved in the guidance of patients’ seeking and use of online information on this topic.
Highlights
Cannabis has increasingly become an alternative treatment for chronic pain, there is evidence of concomitant negative health effects with its long-term usage
General characteristics of eligible websites Eligible websites were identified as belonging to 1 of 6 categories, as follows: health portal, professional, cannabis news, non-profit, commercial, and other
The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of online cannabis consumer health information for the treatment/management of pain
Summary
Cannabis has increasingly become an alternative treatment for chronic pain, there is evidence of concomitant negative health effects with its long-term usage. Patients contemplating cannabis use for pain relief commonly see information online but may not be able to identify trustworthy and accurate sources, it is imperative that healthcare practitioners play a role in assisting them in discerning the quality of information. While the long-term impacts of prolonged cannabis use remain understudied, there is preliminary evidence suggesting that negative health effects are concomitant with long-term usage, such as tuberculosis (with smoking cannabis), addiction (seen in 17% of heavy users who start using cannabis in adolescence), altered brain development, increased risk of schizophrenia, lowered IQ, and cyclic vomiting (Nugent et al 2017; Schreiner and Dunn 2012; Volkow et al 2014). Patients contemplating using cannabis for pain relief commonly seek information online but may not be able to identify trustworthy and accurate sources (Diviani et al 2015). It is important that healthcare providers are aware of the quality of such information commonly accessed by patients, in order that they are prepared to guide them in identifying trustworthy sources
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