Information about knee injuries on the Internet

S. Rose, Julie Bruce, N. Maffulli

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We wished to explore the volume and accessibility of information about anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscal injuries on the Internet. One hundred patients attending a Sports Trauma NHS outpatient clinic were surveyed to determine Internet use and to identify the terms that the patients used to describe their injuries. These search terms were used to conduct an extensive Internet search on five search engines for information about ACL and meniscal injuries. it emerged that 40% of patients attending outpatient clinic had searched the Internet. Over half of this patient group (58%) stated they would consider using the Internet to retrieve information about their medical condition. A total of 5947 web pages were accessed and categorised according to content. Only 393 (7%) pages contained information relevant to ACL and meniscal injuries, it appears that the number of patients using the Internet to retrieve information on their condition is increasing. As patients usually have no skills in information retrieval and the amount of information retrieved using layman's terms is negligible, their access to reliable and valid web sites containing medical information should be facilitated. (C) 2001, Editrice Kurtis.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9-13
Number of pages4
JournalEuropean Journal of Sports Traumatology
Volume23
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 2001

Keywords

  • world wide web
  • search engines
  • WORLD-WIDE-WEB
  • HEALTH INFORMATION
  • QUALITY
  • RETRIEVAL
  • LIST

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