The internet

Computer skills in patients with movement disorders

BACKGROUND

Electronic communication is important in healthcare, but the level of computer proficiency among patients with neurological disorders is unknown.

OBJECTIVE

This study sought to determine the proportion of a movement disorder clinic population that was able to perform basic computer skills, and the effect of specific cognitive and motor features on computer proficiency.

METHODS

One hundred and four movement disorder patients participated. Seventy-four completed both paper and computerized questionnaires to evaluate data entry skills and thirty subjects completed paper questionnaires only. Basic e-mail messaging and Internet skills were evaluated. Demographic information, Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) score, and Hoehn and Yahr stage were assessed.

RESULTS

Ninety-six percent of subjects successfully completed computerized data entry tasks, and over 70% completed e-mail and Internet tasks. Computer data entry had an average accuracy of nearly 95% when compared to paper data entry. Poorer performance on computer tasks was associated with older age, less education, and cognitive impairment. Computer performance was reduced in subjects with a history of parkinsonism and when both tremor and dyskinesia were present during task performance. Nearly three-quarters of subjects have access to a computer. Subjects who completed the paper questionnaire but refused to complete the computer questionnaire were older, less educated and more cognitively impaired.

CONCLUSION

The majority of patients visiting a tertiary movement disorders center were able to perform computer data entry, e-mail messaging and Internet usage. These results reinforce the potential value of electronic communication and information systems in neurology practice.

An evaluation of the contents and quality of menopause information on the World Wide Web

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the content and quality of currently available World Wide Web based information about menopause.

DESIGN

A sample of the 100 top sites obtained with the search engine Google for the key word "menopause" was evaluated according to predefined general and specific criteria, content type, language, and quality. The Internet popularity was established by the number of links to each website. Using a systematic scoring tool each site was assessed on factual information provided and quality of site.

RESULTS

The websites studied were heterogeneous in content and quality. The most frequent type of website has commercial content with low quality, biased or useless information. Few sites provided comprehensive medical information about menopause. The scientific societies not always provided complete information about the possible adverse events related with hormone replacement therapy. The results of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) and the Million Women (MW) studies are discussed by very few websites. Internet popularity did not correlate with measures of quality such as display of authorship, attribution or references, currency of information, and disclosure.

CONCLUSION

The content and quality of the websites concerning menopause are widely varied and sometimes biased to commercial goals. The dominant medical information is of low quality and do not comply with general quality scores although the most informative sites have comprehensive content about the menopause including the recent results of the WHI and MW studies.

Internet resources for neurologists

This fourth and final review in the JNNP internet series summarises the essential internet resources for adult and paediatric clinical neurology, neuroradiology, and neurophysiology. This article is freely available on the JNNP website (www.jnnp.com), where-within seconds-the complete list of recommended websites can be easily downloaded and incorporated into your web browser as a Bookmark/Favorite file. The further progress of clinical neurology on the world wide web will be monitored in JNNP Neuronline fillers and JNNP Neurology in Practice supplements.

Internet resources for psychiatry and neuropsychiatry

Some of the most useful internet resources relevant to psychiatry and neuropsychiatry are summarised. Web sites recommended for professionals and patients are detailed, including where to find evidence based psychiatry, psychiatry news, and professional organisations. Some thoughts on "cyberchondria" and the opportunities that the internet offers for illness transmission are also considered.