Evaluation of the quality of information on the internet about 2019 coronavirus outbreak in relation to orthodontics

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the content of information in three different search engines in terms of orthodontics as the source of information at the current stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. An internet search was conducted on April 10th, 2020, using the most popular search engines: GoogleTM, BingTM, and Yahoo!(R) with the keyword "coronavirus orthodontics". Top 10 websites were evaluated for each search engine. After excluding duplicates the remaining 23 sites were saved in Microsoft Excel programme and evaluated by two independent researchers (HKO and RSO; both experienced orthodontists) using the modified DISCERN tool and JAMA benchmarks. The websites were also classified as "useful, misleading and news updates". Sixty one percent of the websites were classified as useful, 26% as misleading, and 13% as news updates. Most of the authors of the websites were unknown (35%) and followed by orthodontists (30%). The DISCERN and JAMA scores of the four websites were excellent and their target audience were orthodontists. The average modified DISCERN score of 23 websites was moderate (average score 2,8). Useful websites had a significantly higher number of DISCERN and JAMA scores than the misleading websites (p < 0.05). Most of the information available in three different search engines about orthodontics related to COVID-19 were useful. The most reliable websites belonged to American Association of Orthodontists (AAO), Australian Society of Orthodontists (ASO), and British Orthodontic Society (BOS), and they appeared on the first page of the GoogleTM.