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Content and Design Attributes of Antivaccination Web Sites

2002; American Medical Association; Volume: 287; Issue: 24 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1001/jama.287.24.3245

1538-3598

R. Wolfe,

Influenza Virus Research Studies

ONEof the greatest achievements of biomedical science and public health. 1However, during the last few decades an increasingly vocal antivaccination movement has challenged the safety and effectiveness of recommended vaccines. 2,3The extent of concern in the United States was highlighted by a national survey that found that although the majority of parents supported vaccination, 25% believed that too many vaccinations could weaken children's immune systems and 23% believed that children get too many immunizations. 4ecent studies indicate that 66% of US adults (137 million) are now online and that 80% of all adults online use the Internet to look for health information. 5,6Furthermore, 52% of those who have visited online health sites believe that "almost all" or "most" of the health information they find online is credible. 7Individuals searching for vaccination information may find themselves visiting antivaccination sites.This study explored the content and design attributes of antivaccination sites that an individual might encounter doing a typical Web search, with the goal of enhancing our understanding of concerns raised on these sites. METHODS Search StrategyUsing the Netlingo Dictionary of Internet Words (http://www.netlingo.com)and the Webopedia Online Computer Dictionary of Internet Terms (http:// www.pcwebopedia.com),we defined a "Web page" as a single html file or document viewed on a Web browser and a "Web site" as a site (location) on the World Wide Web.Each Web site contains a "home page," which is the first document users see when they enter the site.Each site is owned and managed by an individual, company, or organization.A "link" (or "hyperlink") is an element in an electronic document that links to another place in the same document or to an entirely different document.Typically, clicking on a hyperlink will transport a user to another document or section of the document.Antivaccination Web pages were identified using Copernic 2000 v4.55a (Copernic Technologies Inc, Sainte Foy, Que ´bec), an Internet search utility program designed to simultaneously submit searches on numerous search engines.We used 10 search engines: AltaVista, EuroSeek, Excite, Google, GoTo.com,HotBot, Infoseek, Lycos, Yahoo, and All the Web FAST Search, with up to 30 results returned on each engine for a maximum of 300 results per search.Two of the investigators (R.