Introduction

1. No. 022 Treatment Options for Localised Prostate Cancer : An Assessment of the Quality of Health Information on the Internet K. Ong1, N. Lawrentschuk1, D. Bolton1 Department of Surgery/ Urology, University of Melbourne, Austin Health, Victoria Introduction The Internet has become a large reservoir of health information for patients and health professionals. It is an important and rapidly evolving source of global health-related information. Health information is one of the most commonly search topics in the Internet1. However, it is widely accepted that the quality of information provided is variable. Results Regardless of the different treatment modalities available for the management of localised prostate cancer, most Web sites are not HON accredited. In terms of total Web sites retrieved, “radiation therapy prostate cancer” scored the most with 3,020,000 sites returned from the search followed closely by “hormone therapy prostate cancer” and “cyberknifeprostate” scoring the least number of Web sites (Table 1). Regarding total percentage of HON accredited sites, “radiation therapy prostate cancer” scored the most sites at 16.7% followed closely by “hormone therapy prostate cancer” at 16% and “active surveillance prostate cancer” returned 14.7%. Interestingly the three surgical modalities (i.e. “open radical prostatectomy”, “laparoscopic radical prostatectomy” and “robotic radical prostatectomy”) scored similar number of HON accredited Web sites. Once again “cyberknife prostate” scored the least HON accredited sites at 5.3% (Table 1). The sponsor analysis of the first 150 Web sites was undertaken. Majority of the Web sites (>80%) were sponsored by institutions, commercial organizations and doctors/urologists (Table 2). Interestingly, no other health professional was found independently sponsoring a Web site because they generally formed part of a commercial reference or were grouped with urologists who were deemed the primary site sponsor. Also, the most commonly accredited sponsor group were non-profit organisations (55%), educational institutions or government agencies (41%), commercial sites (21%) and finally urologists and their organisations (15%). Aim To compare the quality of Web sites on various treatment options for localised prostate cancer. The quality of such information on the internet is perceived to be variable but no comprehensive analysis exists. Methods Health on the Net (HON) principles as defined by the HON Foundation may be applied to Web sites using an automated toolbar function. Using the Google search engine (www.google.com) in 2011, we performed Internet searches and assessed 1500 Web sites using the keywords “open radical prostatectomy”, “laparoscopic radical prostatectomy”, “robotic radical prostatectomy”, “radiation therapy prostate cancer”, “active surveillance prostate cancer”, “hormone therapy prostate cancer””, “HIFU prostate”,“cryotherapy prostate”, “photodynamic therapy prostate” and “cyberknife prostate”. All search terms were entered in English. On the basis of the observation that patients rarely access more than the first page of search results2, the first 150 Web sites yielded by each search were then identified and sequentially screened for quality as defined by the HON Foundation3. This was achieved by applying HON principles through the HONcode toolbar function (downloaded from http://www.hon.ch/ for use on any personal computer with Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox as browser). The toolbar will activate or “light-up” if a Web site is accredited (Figure 1). Figure 1. Conclusions A lack of validation of most of the Web sites containing health information related to various treatment options for localised prostate cancer should be appreciated by urologists. We need to promote informative, ethical and reliable complimentary health Web sites on the Internet and direct patients to them. References Risk A, Dzenowagis J. Review of internet health information quality initiatives. J Med Internet Res. 2001;3:E28 Lawrentschuk N, Abouassaly R. Health information quality on the internet in urological oncology: a multilingual longitudinal evaluation. Urology. 2009; 74: 1063 Health on the Net Foundation. HON code of conduct for medical and health. Available at: http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/. Acknowledgements Many thanks to A/Prof Nathan Lawrentschuk and A/Prof Damien Bolton for their ongoing support. Poster presentation sponsor