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Design: Evaluation of the web sites which contain information relating to obesity.
Setting: Listing of web-sites was obtained from 14 search engines with the help of Copernic agent professional version 6.21. The search for websites was undertaken using the keyword "obesity".
Participants: Out of 162 web-sites retrieved from meta search engine, 54 sites themselves provide patient information and so considered for evaluation.
Intervention(s): Data obtained was analyzed by cluster analysis and classified into four categories with respect to quality.
Main Outcome Measure(s): Twelve core educational concepts specific for obesity patient education were developed and the websites were evaluated for compliance. The quality of all the websites providing patient information for obesity were evaluated based on the extent of their adherence to Health Summit Working Group (HSWG) criteria. On the basis of the sum of scores obtained from "obesity core educational concepts" and HSWG criteria, websites were graded as excellent, medium, good and average.
Results: Considerable variability in quality of patient education web-sites was found with respect to core educational concepts and HSWG criteria. Spearman correlation analysis showed significant correlation (P=0.016) at 0.05 level, between total scores of core educational concept and HSWG criteria.
Conclusions: Inclusion of stress management, role of family support, enhancement in customized content like chat rooms, discussion forums, customized alerts and easier feedback mechanisms will be a significant development in the direction of patient centred obesity care.
