Assessment of reliability for cancer health/medical information websites

Analysis using an authentication code (HONcode) indicating trustworthiness

Abstract

Much of the information found online lacks evidence. Inaccurate medical health information amplifies the anxiety of information recipients and can even cause health crises. In this study, we compared and evaluated the crawled websites of authoritative academic societies and medical institutions and the search results extracted by Google. We used HONcode (Health On the Net Foundation code) for this purpose. Although the information displayed in the search results was highly reliable, the HONcode evaluation score result was low. This indicates that academic societies and national centers must construct websites that can withstand formal evaluation while disseminating accurate medical information.