Improving the transparency of health information found on the Internet through the HONcode

This study aims to show that the HONcode developed by the Health on the Net Foundation improves the transparency of the health information found on the Internet. We wanted to demonstrate that most of non-certified websites do not respect health quality criteria. In a longitudinal study, the compliance by health websites applying for certification to the eight HONcode principles and respect to principles1, 4, 5 and 8 was evaluated during the certification application (T0) and 6-8 months after obtaining certification (CW). This analysis shows that these health websites do not respect spontaneously the HONcode principles. The certification process led them to respect them which lasted at least until 6-8 months after obtaining the certification.