PRESCRIPTIONS
Be wary of Web sites as source of medical advice
By Landis Lum
Q. My dad uses the Internet all the time for information on diets, drugs and supplements. Is this a good idea?
A. The medical journal Spine did a study Feb. 15, 2003, on the accuracy of low-back pain information on the Internet and found that the quality of 58 of the 60 Web sites they surveyed was poor.
Some Web sites contained seriously misleading and even false information. It was suggested that patients not use the Internet as a source of advice for back pain "unless the Web sites being accessed have been evaluated and found to provide evidence-based information."
What's going on here? Many Web pages are trying to sell something and make money, and may not have your best interests in mind. And just because "experts" have M.D. after their names doesn't mean the information is accurate, no matter how convincing their theories and testimonials. The back-pain study found that Web sites providing references and not created for advertising purposes tended to be of better quality.
So how do you find reliable sites? The worse thing is to do a general search using America Online (AOL), Google, Yahoo, etc., because you'll get to an estimated 100,000 health-related sites, of which most are unreliable.
Which sites provide evidence-based information? Go to the top of your Netscape or AOL or Internet Explorer page and in the blank space for Web addresses, type medlineplus.gov, then press Go or Enter.
This site is from the U.S. Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, and has more than 600 diseases under Health Topics, as well as a medical encyclopedia with pictures and interactive tutorials with audiovisual lessons on various topics.
You can also try www.os.dhhs.gov, sponsored by the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Adults and children who have trouble with computers can try www.healthfinder.gov, which has a kids link to interactive games.
Or visit the Hawaii Medical Library site at hml.org and explore the Hawaii Health Portal, which was activated last month. It has links to many of the above sites as well as to Native Hawaiian sites, Hawai'i-related health news and various local agencies.
But if your dad e-mails you a Web site, how can you judge it's reliability? If it's trying to sell a product, it's more likely to give biased information or not disclose dangerous side effects.
Is it from a reputable source, such as www.mayoclinic.com? Even if he finds the newest therapy or test on the Internet, the bottom line is that his doctor knows his condition best, and the new therapy, diet, supplement or test may not be the best one for him.
Dr. Landis Lum is a family-practice physician for Kaiser Permanente and an associate clinical professor at the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine.
Send your questions to Prescriptions, Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; fax 535-8170; or e-mail islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com.
This column is not intended to provide medical advice.
