Objective
The purposes of this study were to evaluate the accessibility of the arthritis-related web sites and the quality of the information contained in the sites.
Method: To assess the status of arthritis-related information on the internet sites in Korea, we searched for Korean words which meant and were related with 'arthritis' using the 10 most famous Korean internet search engines. Identified internet site were assessed regarding the quality of content, authorship, design, and functionality.
Results: The number of identified web sites ranged from 24 to 214. The average search yielded around 83 web sites listing for 'arthritis'. The number of web sites listed for 'arthritis' was as many as that for 'hypertension', 'diabetes', 'cancer' or 'hepatitis and hepatoma'. The frequency of appearance in a search did not correlate well with the quality of associated web sites.
Conclusion: The quality of arthritis-related web sites in Korea varied. It is essential to develop a high quality information supplying web sites and to set up an evaluation tool for qualifying the medical information on internet.
