Double role of health information on the internet: mms and the treatment of Autism
International Journal of Development Research
Double role of health information on the internet: mms and the treatment of Autism
Received 28th April, 2021; Received in revised form 06th May, 2021; Accepted 08th June, 2021; Published online 28th July, 2021
Copyright © 2021, Luciana Castilho Bokehi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Despite the role it can play in empowerment and in various patient support activities, there is ample evidence that points to problems in the quality of health information available on the internet. This work analyzed the quality of information about the use of Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) in the treatment of autism on websites in Portuguese, hosted in Brazil. A total of 121 sites were analyzed considering technical aspects, interactivity, readability and accuracy. The results showed that the majority (76%) did not indicate the use of MMS. Blogs were the sites that most indicated the use of the product. It is noteworthy that the sites that indicate the use of the product have been well evaluated in terms of interactivity and readability, but with a very poor result in the accuracy of the information conveyed. If, on one hand, there is a low quality of the information conveyed about the use of MMS for the treatment of autism, there is also an intensification of publications that contraindicate the use of this product after the publication of matter in a mass communication vehicle, which points to the feasibility and importance of the dissemination of good quality health information on the internet.
