The accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks

Introduction: Consumers commonly use the Internet for immediate drug information. In 2014, Google introduced the snippet block to programmatically search available websites to answer a question entered into the search engine without the need for the user to enter any websites. This study compared th...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Cambrey Nguyen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	University Library System, University of Pittsburgh 2021
Materias:	internet pharmacists drug information patient care search engine Bibliography. Library science. Information resources Z Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/647095eb43ef4029ac5612065aba85fc
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:647095eb43ef4029ac5612065aba85fc
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:647095eb43ef4029ac5612065aba85fc2021-11-22T20:41:00ZThe accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks1536-50501558-943910.5195/jmla.2021.1229https://doaj.org/article/647095eb43ef4029ac5612065aba85fc2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://jmla.pitt.edu/ojs/jmla/article/view/1229https://doaj.org/toc/1536-5050https://doaj.org/toc/1558-9439Introduction: Consumers commonly use the Internet for immediate drug information. In 2014, Google introduced the snippet block to programmatically search available websites to answer a question entered into the search engine without the need for the user to enter any websites. This study compared the accuracy and completeness of drug information found in Google snippet blocks to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) medication guides. Methods: Ten outpatient drugs were selected from the 2018 Clinical Drugstats Database Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Six questions in the medication guide for each drug were entered into the Google search engine to find the snippet block. The accuracy and completeness of drug information in the Google snippet block were quantified by two different pharmacists using a scoring system of 1 (less than 25% accurate/complete information) to 5 (100% accurate/complete information). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the scores. Results: For five out of the six questions, the information in the Google snippets had less than 50% accuracy and completeness compared to the medication guides. The average accuracy and completeness scores of the Google snippets were highest for “What are the ingredients of [the drug]?” with scores of 3.38 (51–75%) and 3.00 (51–75%), respectively. The question on “How to take [drug]?” had the lowest score with averages of 1.00 (<25%) for both accuracy and completeness. Conclusion: Google snippets provide inaccurate and incomplete drug information when compared to FDA-approved drug medication guides. This aspect may cause patient harm; therefore, it is imperative for health care and health information professionals to provide reliable drug resources to patients and consumers if written information may be needed.Cambrey NguyenUniversity Library System, University of Pittsburgharticleinternetpharmacistsdrug informationpatient caresearch engineBibliography. Library science. Information resourcesZMedicineRENJournal of the Medical Library Association, Vol 109, Iss 4 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	internet pharmacists drug information patient care search engine Bibliography. Library science. Information resources Z Medicine R
spellingShingle	internet pharmacists drug information patient care search engine Bibliography. Library science. Information resources Z Medicine R Cambrey Nguyen The accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks
description	Introduction: Consumers commonly use the Internet for immediate drug information. In 2014, Google introduced the snippet block to programmatically search available websites to answer a question entered into the search engine without the need for the user to enter any websites. This study compared the accuracy and completeness of drug information found in Google snippet blocks to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) medication guides. Methods: Ten outpatient drugs were selected from the 2018 Clinical Drugstats Database Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Six questions in the medication guide for each drug were entered into the Google search engine to find the snippet block. The accuracy and completeness of drug information in the Google snippet block were quantified by two different pharmacists using a scoring system of 1 (less than 25% accurate/complete information) to 5 (100% accurate/complete information). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the scores. Results: For five out of the six questions, the information in the Google snippets had less than 50% accuracy and completeness compared to the medication guides. The average accuracy and completeness scores of the Google snippets were highest for “What are the ingredients of [the drug]?” with scores of 3.38 (51–75%) and 3.00 (51–75%), respectively. The question on “How to take [drug]?” had the lowest score with averages of 1.00 (<25%) for both accuracy and completeness. Conclusion: Google snippets provide inaccurate and incomplete drug information when compared to FDA-approved drug medication guides. This aspect may cause patient harm; therefore, it is imperative for health care and health information professionals to provide reliable drug resources to patients and consumers if written information may be needed.
format	article
author	Cambrey Nguyen
author_facet	Cambrey Nguyen
author_sort	Cambrey Nguyen
title	The accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks
title_short	The accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks
title_full	The accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks
title_fullStr	The accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks
title_full_unstemmed	The accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks
title_sort	accuracy and completeness of drug information in google snippet blocks
publisher	University Library System, University of Pittsburgh
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/647095eb43ef4029ac5612065aba85fc
work_keys_str_mv	AT cambreynguyen theaccuracyandcompletenessofdruginformationingooglesnippetblocks AT cambreynguyen accuracyandcompletenessofdruginformationingooglesnippetblocks
_version_	1718417378075738112

The accuracy and completeness of drug information in Google snippet blocks

Ejemplares similares