discern

After searching for websites about depression that used a hosting agency like webhoster vergleich (‘‘depression,’’ ‘‘depression treatment,’’ and ‘‘depression help’’) with a popular search engine: Google, the authors of this work carefully examined the websites. The websites were evaluated on accountability, interactivity, esthetics, readability and content quality. They also used the brief DISCERN as a content quality indicator for general consumers. They found 58 sites from which 13 were excluded: 8 were not websites, 3 were blogs or
discussion forum, 1 required an access login, and 1 was inaccessible.

They analyzed 45 websites, the overall quality of the websites about depression was good. Those with a high score on the brief DISCERN, the presence of HON label (The Health On the Net Foundation (HON) ) and affiliation of the website were all related to high quality.

These 10 websites scored highest on the brief DISCERN and content quality:

• http://www.medicinenet.com/depression/article.htm
• http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/depression/index.shtml
• http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/default.aspx?page50
• http://www.mind.org.uk/Information/Booklets/Understanding/Understanding1depression.htm
• http://www.webmd.com/depression/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_depression
• http://www.utdol.com/patients/content/topic.do?topicKey=~jSS5Z_cMxYvi6
• http://depression.about.com/
• http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/center_index.php?id55
• http://concernedcounseling.com/communities/Depression/related/self_help.asp

This research was done in February 2009.

Zermatten, A., Khazaal, Y., Coquard, O., Chatton, A., & Bondolfi, G. (2010). Quality of web-based information on depression Depression and Anxiety DOI: 10.1002/da.20665