A comparative study of strategies for identifying credible sources of mental health information online: Can clinical services deliver a youth-specific internet prescription?

An evaluation of the quality of COVID-19 websites in terms of HON principles and using DISCERN tool

BACKGROUND

As many people relied on information from the Internet for official scientific or academically affiliated information during the COVID-19 pandemic, the quality of information on those websites should be good.

OBJECTIVE

The main purpose of this study was to evaluate a selection of COVID-19-related websites for the quality of health information provided.

METHOD

Using Google and Yahoo, 36 English language websites were selected, in accordance with the inclusion criteria. The two tools were selected for evaluation were the Health on the Net (HON) Code and the 16-item DISCERN tool.

RESULTS

Most websites (39%) were related to information for the public, and a small number of them (3%) concerned screening websites in which people could be informed of their possible condition by entering their symptoms. The result of the evaluation by the HON tool showed that most websites were reliable (53%), and 44% of them were very reliable. Based on the assessment results of the Likert-based 16-item DISCERN tool, the maximum and minimum values for the average scores of each website were calculated as 2.44 and 4.25, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Evaluation using two widely accepted tools shows that most websites related to COVID-19 are reliable and useful for physicians, researchers and the public.

Advancing the Actionability of Mental Health Information: Identifying Online, Evidence-Based Mental Health Resources

To improve the dissemination and actionability of mental health research, many mental health professionals have developed online informational resources to increase the general public's awareness of mental health difficulties and available treatments. Yet, limited information exists on the quality and scope of these resources. This study aimed to explore the scope and quantity of online, free, evidence-based mental health resources. Fifty-two mental health professionals nominated 178 resources, which predominantly consisted of homepages and links to more information. When reviewing the original nominations, our team identified an additional 290 resources (e.g., fact sheets linked from a nominated homepage). Of the 468 total nominated resources, 72 were screened out due to not meeting the inclusion criteria of being free (inter-screener reliability = 95%), evidence-based (inter-screener reliability = 94%), and online (inter-screener reliability = 96%). Nominated resources most commonly covered anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder (n = 67) and suicide (n = 60). Resources providing information about the mental health problem were most common (n = 210) and resources providing information about immediate help (e.g., hotline) were least common (n = 57). Our findings indicate many free, online, evidence-based resources are available and raise questions of whether efforts to disseminate mental health research are recreating the issue of information overload. Other considerations and future directions for improving the utilization and synthesizing of available resources are discussed.

Research to Clinical Practice-Youth seeking mental health information online and its impact on the first steps in the patient journey

BACKGROUND

Online searches about anxiety and depression are recorded every 3-5 s. As such, information and communication technologies (ICT) have enormous potential to enable or impair help-seeking and patient-professional interactions. Youth studies indicate that ICT searches are undertaken before initial mental health consultations, but no publications have considered how this online activity affects the first steps of the patient journey in youth mental health settings.

METHODS

State-of-the-art review using an iterative, evidence mapping approach to identify key literature and expert consensus to synthesize and prioritise clinical and research issues.

RESULTS

Adolescents and young adults are more likely to seek health advice via online search engines or social media platforms than from a health professional. Young people not only search user-generated content and social media to obtain advice and support from online communities but increasingly contribute personal information online.

CONCLUSIONS

A major clinical challenge is to raise professional awareness of the likely impact of this activity on mental health consultations. Potential strategies range from modifying the structure of clinical consultations to ensure young people are able to disclose ICT activities related to mental health, through to the development and implementation of 'internet prescriptions' and a youth-focused 'toolkit'.