Identification of Australian depression sites

The Medical Journal of Australia ISSN: 0025-729X 20 May 2002 176 10 Suppl 97-101 ©The Medical Journal of Australia 2002 www.mja.com.au Depression and the Community IT HAS BEEN ESTIMATED that 6.4 million Australian adults — almost half the adult population — accessed the Internet during 2000.1 Reportedly, more Internet users search the Web for information on depression than any other health condition.2 This is not surprising given the high level of disability a s ciated with depression in the community3 and the fact that the Web provides a convenient, anonymous means of obtaining information about the problem. However, much of the depression information on the Web is of low quality4-6 and originates in the United States. If Australian consumers are to benefit from Web-based media, they need to know which sites are of high quality and appropriate to local needs. Because consumers are more likely to trust information on a website that is recommended by their doctor,7 general practitioners are uniquely placed to advise people about which depression websites to visit.7 However, there are currently no systematic guides to Australian depression websites on which GPs can base their advice. Another way that consumers or non-specialist healthcare providers might judge the quality of sites is by indirect indicators that do not rely on specialist knowledge. Although many such indicators have been proposed, their validity as markers of content quality has not been established.4,8 Recently, the DISCERN scale9 has generated considerable interest as a potential indicator of website quality. In particular, the scale is intended to assist people without content expertise assess the quality of written health treatment information by systematically rating a number of attributes of a publication, such as the extent to which it describes treatment alternatives and their risks and benefits; the degree to which the information appears balanced and unbiased; and whether the publication documents areas of uncertainty. To our knowledge, there have been no studies of the validity of DISCERN as an indicator of the content accuracy of Web-based or other written health material. Here we intend to: ■ provide information for consumers and healthcare providers about Australian depression sites and the quality (accuracy and comprehensiveness) of their content; ■ explore the validity of the DISCERN system as an indicator of the quality of treatment content; and ■ determine the accessibility of Australian depression websites. Methods