Development of quality assessment tool for websites of the international aesthetic medicine societies

Abstract

Online users often search public health websites to examine health-related issues, including diagnosis and symptomatic behaviours; however, the quality and reliability of health websites still pose significant challenges for medical societies. Thus, we conducted a quality check of international aesthetic medicine society (UIME) websites. All websites reporting health-related information should identify a specific organisation as the reporting authority, and the accuracy of their content must be verified. The analysis was conducted by considering 31 national societies, and a quality assessment was performed using a tailor-made questionnaire with three criteria: design (70 points), reliability (85 points) and privacy (15 points). According to the results, only two of the websites fulfil the threshold score of 130/170 (76.4%). Seven societies do not have responsive websites, and only five sites achieved ≥50 points for the design criterion. The American society websites met the reliability parameter and achieved ≥70 points, and 11 sites achieved a minimum score of 10 points for privacy. This study reveals that major health societies in public healthcare must be improved to meet user needs and catalyse positive change in the distribution of health information.

Keywords

• Health information quality
• Online health information
• Quality evaluation
• Instrument validation
• Aesthetic medicine