Internet Health Resources for Hantavirus: Quality and Readability Assessment of Information on Websites.

Background: Hantavirus is an incurable, highly contagious, and fatal infection caused by rodent exposure. Although it can be prevented with precautionary measures and public awareness, there is no evidence regarding the quality and readability of online information on this subject. It is important t...

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Publicado en:Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet Vol. 30; no. 2; pp. 119 - 131
Autor principal: Aytekin, Feyza Yildiz
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Apr-Jun2026
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      jtl: Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet
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      dt: Apr-Jun2026
      vid: 30
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      pid: 377
      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
      place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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        10.1080/15398285.2026.2647312
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        atl: Internet Health Resources for Hantavirus: Quality and Readability Assessment of Information on Websites.
      aug:
        au: Aytekin, Feyza Yildiz
        affil: Department of Infectious Disease and Clinical Microbiology, Prof. Dr. A. İlhan Özdemir State Hospital, Giresun, Türkiye
      sug:
        subj:
          Hantavirus
          Internet
          Health Information
          Readability Evaluation
          World Wide Web
          Human
          Turkiye
          Cross Sectional Studies
          Descriptive Statistics
          Chi Square Test
          Analysis of Variance
          Data Analysis Software
          Scales
          Web Search Engines
          Reference Books
          Authors
          News
          Excellence
      ab: Background: Hantavirus is an incurable, highly contagious, and fatal infection caused by rodent exposure. Although it can be prevented with precautionary measures and public awareness, there is no evidence regarding the quality and readability of online information on this subject. It is important to evaluate online sources as a DISCERN study to help improve public knowledge and safety in this regard. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the quality and readability of online health resources on hantavirus. Methods: Search engines used were Google, Bing, and Yahoo. A total of 20 websites were considered from each search engine using the top search words from Google Trends. The DISCERN tool was used to determine quality and readability. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA analysis were performed to evaluate the results. Results: The included 37 websites from Google, Bing, and Yahoo belonged to healthcare (48.64%), government (18.91%), encyclopedia (8.10%), medical authors (13.51%), and news (10.81%). There was no significant difference between the search engine choices regarding information content (p > 0.05). Their readability was 36.68/40 (±4.64), and treatment quality was 17.27/35 (±6.12). Overall quality of the websites was 3.87/5 (±0.89), scoring 25% excellent, 38.90% good, 25% fair, and only 11.1% poor in the DISCERN instrument. Conclusions: The readability and quality of the first 20 websites about hantavirus searched from Google, Bing, and Yahoo were good and can be relied upon by users, as most of them were from healthcare, government, and medical author sources.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
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        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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