Quality assessment of online medical information on oral contraceptive pills in arabic language websites, a cross-sectional study

Many people nowadays seek the health information they need online, as an alternative to professional medical consultation. The current manuscript aims to evaluate the quality of the online information on oral contraceptive pills in Arabic websites. In this cross-sectional study, the term “oral contraceptive pills” in the Arabic language was fed to popular search engines. A list of 45 websites was evaluated in terms of accuracy/completeness, credibility and usability. The analyzed data demonstrated that most websites provide incomplete infor-mation about important issues, like efficacy, safety, instruction for administration, and when to use backup methods, which might result in the delivery of misinformation and the conse-quent occurrence of unwanted pregnancy. In the majority of the websites, the articles were prepared by anonymous authors with unknown qualifications and expertise, and without providing any citations, which questions the reliability and correctness of the provided in-formation. Moreover, most websites did not declare the source of their funding and the or-ganization behind the websites, which opens the door for a possibility of a conflict of interest and the exploitation of the websites for marketing purposes. On the other hand, most web-sites fairly fulfilled the usability criteria, as they were designed with a clear, consistent and legible layout of information, with easy navigation and information finding. In conclusion, the majority of the websites in the Arabic language provide information on oral contraceptive pills, which is inadequate, none reliable, none credible and seriously vulnerable to inaccuracy and conflict of interest.