An ever-increasing number of patients are using the Internet to learn about medical conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of Internet-based patient information on gender reassignment surgery for people who suffer from gender dysphoria. Twenty websites identified using Google and Yahoo search engines were selected and evaluated based on the modified Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) instrument (36 items). The EQIP tool comprises 36 questions to which the answer can be "yes" or "no". The final score for each website can be between 0 and 36. An overall score of 26 or above was considered high, because it co-related to the 72nd percentile. The average of the scores turned out to be 22.5 points, lower than our target; 7 (35%) sites were rated higher than the average and 13 (65%) were rated lower. The assessment of the websites included in the study showed a lack of information about the sequence of the medical procedures, perioperative criticalities and qualitative risks and side-effects descriptions. The overall quality of published information on gender reassignment surgery is very low. We believe that the Internet should not be used as the main source of medical information, and physicians should maintain the leadership in guiding patients affected by gender dysphoria.

Gender dysphoria: Quality of online information for gender reassignment surgery / LO TORTO, Federico; Mori, FRANCESCO LUCA ROCCO; Bruno, Edoardo; Giacomini, Giorgio; Turriziani, Gianmarco; Firmani, Guido; Marcasciano, Marco; Ribuffo, Diego. - In: JPRAS OPEN. - ISSN 2352-5878. - 38:(2023), pp. 117-123. [10.1016/j.jpra.2023.08.008]

Gender dysphoria: Quality of online information for gender reassignment surgery

Federico Lo Torto
Primo
Investigation
;
Francesco Rocco Mori
Secondo
Formal Analysis
;
Giorgio Giacomini
Writing – Original Draft Preparation
;
Gianmarco Turriziani
Data Curation
;
Guido Firmani
Writing – Review & Editing
;
Marco Marcasciano
Penultimo
Visualization
;
Diego Ribuffo
Ultimo
Supervision
2023

Abstract

An ever-increasing number of patients are using the Internet to learn about medical conditions. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of Internet-based patient information on gender reassignment surgery for people who suffer from gender dysphoria. Twenty websites identified using Google and Yahoo search engines were selected and evaluated based on the modified Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) instrument (36 items). The EQIP tool comprises 36 questions to which the answer can be "yes" or "no". The final score for each website can be between 0 and 36. An overall score of 26 or above was considered high, because it co-related to the 72nd percentile. The average of the scores turned out to be 22.5 points, lower than our target; 7 (35%) sites were rated higher than the average and 13 (65%) were rated lower. The assessment of the websites included in the study showed a lack of information about the sequence of the medical procedures, perioperative criticalities and qualitative risks and side-effects descriptions. The overall quality of published information on gender reassignment surgery is very low. We believe that the Internet should not be used as the main source of medical information, and physicians should maintain the leadership in guiding patients affected by gender dysphoria.
2023
EQIP tool; gender dysphoria; gender reassignment surgery; online information.
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Gender dysphoria: Quality of online information for gender reassignment surgery / LO TORTO, Federico; Mori, FRANCESCO LUCA ROCCO; Bruno, Edoardo; Giacomini, Giorgio; Turriziani, Gianmarco; Firmani, Guido; Marcasciano, Marco; Ribuffo, Diego. - In: JPRAS OPEN. - ISSN 2352-5878. - 38:(2023), pp. 117-123. [10.1016/j.jpra.2023.08.008]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1731815
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