Evaluation of French-language internet sites dealing with multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND Information available on the internet has changed patient-neurologist relationships. Its evaluation for multiple sclerosis is only partial, regardless of the language used. OBJECTIVE We aim to evaluate the content quality and ranking indexes of French-language sites dealing with multiple sclerosis. METHODS Two French terms and three search engines were used to identify the sites whose ranking indexes were calculated according to their positions on each page designated by the search engines. Three evaluators used the DISCERN questionnaire to assess the content quality of the 25 selected sites. The sites were classified according to the mean of the evaluators' grades. Grading agreement between evaluators was calculated. Ranking indexes were computed as a rank/100. RESULTS Content level was deemed mediocre, with poor referencing of the information provided. The naïve and two expert evaluators' grades differed. Content quality disparity was found within the different website categories, except for institutional sites. No correlation was found between content quality and ranking index. CONCLUSION The information available was heterogeneous. Physicians should guide patients in their internet searches for information so that they can benefit from good-quality input which is potentially able to improve their management.