Health information on the internet

We did a prevalence survey among patients attending Obstetrics and Gynaecology clinics on internet-based health information accessed by our patients. Nearly 60% of patients had accessed web-based information before attending our specialist clinics. But only 4% were aware of the recommended website from which to access information. The patients felt the information obtained through common search engines like Yahoo and Google were unclear and confusing. With increasing access to internet-based health information, the medical community needs to address the problems of web-based health information and direct the patients to evaluated and approved websites.