How do general practitioners assess low back pain Web sites?

Abstract

Cross-sectional study of teaching general practitioners (TGPs) in the South of France. To determine what TGPs think about francophone Internet sites dedicated to chronic low back pain (CLBP). Patients with CLBP often seek medical information about their symptoms on the Internet. The quality of the information is usually poor. To date, the opinion of TGPs concerning the quality of CLBP Web sites remains unknown. We invited the 112 TGPs in the Southern region to participate. The participants used an assessment scale to evaluate 7 Web sites about CLBP in semicontrolled conditions. The quality and the importance of the different types of information (medical, nonmedical) and the design were measured on a visual analog scale (0-100) and with the point-sharing method (scale of 0-10). In total, 47 TGPs responded. The median quality score for the 7 Web sites was 50 (range 30-79). The score for medical information was 52.5 (10-80), for nonmedical information it was 60.4 (20-90), and for design it was 56.4 (30-85). For nonmedical information, the median relative weight was 4, and for both medical information and design it was 3. French TGPs believe that CLBP Web sites should focus on nonmedical, practical advice; they consider the design at least as important as the medical information. This viewpoint seems to conflict in part with patients' expectations. Good-quality and interactive Web sites could reduce this discordance. A list of approved sites should be available for general practitioners to recommend to their patients, to supplement information given during the consultation.