Reliability of Online Information on Self-Examination and Oral Cancer

Cristina Cangussu,Ana Katarine Almeida Rios,Mércia Sacramento Dos Santos,Thais Feitosa Leitão Oliveira,Jakeline Martins Novaes Pedreira

doi:10.31487/j.dobcr.2020.02.07

Abstract

Introduction: Periodic dental consultations and oral self-examination can increase the chances of an early diagnosis of oral cancer. However, the restricted population access to health services in Brazil added to the greater scope of the internet has increased the use of this resource as a source of information on signs, symptoms and treatments of several diseases, including oral cancer. Objective: To assess the reliability of the information on self-examination and oral cancer available on the web in Portuguese for Brazilian population. Methodology: In December 2018, independent searches were performed for the terms "mouth cancer", "oral cancer", "oral self- examination/ self-examination" and "buccal self- examination / self-examination", on Google Search (Portuguese terms). The first fifty pages were selected for each term, and those that included prevention, diagnosis of oral cancer or described verbally and visually the oral self-examination were included in the study. The quality of the information was assessed according to the criteria of the American Medical Association and Health on the Net. Of the 108 sites evaluated, 87% did not inform the author's training, 24.1% did not inform the complementary nature of the information and 64.8% provided guidance consult a doctor or dentist. Scientific references were not present in 39.8% of the sites and the “accurate and complete” content was observed in only 35.2% of the evaluated pages. Conclusion: The low quality of the information available on the evaluated pages, suggests low reliability of the content about oral cancer and oral self-examination available on the web, indicating that access to this content may bring risk to the health of the Brazilian population.

Highlights

Periodic dental consultations and oral self-examination can increase the chances of an early diagnosis of oral cancer
Considering the importance of the internet as a means of accessing relevant health information and the need for society to have truthful and reliable information at its disposal for health protection, this study aims to quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate information on oral cancer prevention and on the technique of self-examination of the oral cavity contained in pages open to the general public made available on the internet through the Google Search platform in Portuguese for this population
This is an exploratory, descriptive, cross-sectional research that used secondary data collected on Google Search to investigate information about oral cancer and the technique of self-examination of the oral cavity made available on the internet

Summary

Introduction

Periodic dental consultations and oral self-examination can increase the chances of an early diagnosis of oral cancer. Conclusion: The low quality of the information available on the evaluated pages, suggests low reliability of the content about oral cancer and oral self-examination available on the web, indicating that access to this content may bring risk to the health of the Brazilian population. Other risk factors may include exposure to Ultraviolet rays, diet, immunosuppression, exposure to oncogenic viruses (human papillomavirus), demographic variables (ethnicity, age and gender), among others are described [3, 4]. This type of tumor has an aggressive behavior, with early cervical metastasis, it is very important the rapid performance of health professionals in the diagnosis, referral and beginning of the intervention [5]. Due to the diagnosis and the late search for care, the vast majority of cases of oral cancer are treated at more advanced stages, which considerably worsens

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