Abstract
IntroductionInternet has become a capital source of health information as almost three patients out of four make research on health care. Moreover, obese patients seem to be particularly interested by this tool. We analysed the quality of the most popular French bariatric surgery websites.MethodsBetween September to October 2013, we selected 20 websites on bariatric surgery. The research was conducted using Google® and using the following keywords: “obesity surgery”, “gastric bypass”, “gastric banding”, and “sleeve”. Retrieved websites were assessed with an evaluation tool recommended by the French High Authority for Health (HAS) and classified in 3 categories “very good”, ”good” and “low”. Affiliation and Health On the Net (HON) label were retrieved for each website. The French and French-Speaking Society of Obesity Surgery and Metabolic Disease (SOFFCO-MM) website was automatically included.ResultsAlmost half of the retrieved studies (9/20) belong to private hospitals, eight to media, two are institutional and only one is drafted by a public hospital. Seven websites (35%) have been noted as “very good”, five (25%) as “good”, and eight (40%) as “low”. Hospitals (public or private) make better websites than institutions or media (p<0.05). Websites with a HON label had a significantly higher score (p<0.05). Popularity and quality of websites are poorly correlated (r= −0.493, p=0.27).ConclusionQuality of French websites on bariatric surgery is disparate. Almost one third has a good quality, particularly when written by health professionals. Nevertheless public hospitals seem to be poorly involved in this mean of communication.
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