Current literature

摘要

Bessell TL et al. Do Internetninterventions for consumers causenmore harm than good? A systematicnreview.nHealth Expect 2002; 5:28–37nAs consumer use of the Internet fornon-line health services and informationngrows, the authors identify anneed for insight into whether thisncauses more harm than good. Allnpost-1995 comparative studies ofnconsumer use of on-line healthninformation and services werenconsidered as part of a systematicnreview. These were identified bynsearching a range of informationnsources. Citations were downloadednto an EndNote database, andnduplicates were removed. Eachncitation was screened for inclusion innthe review according to predeterminednselection criteria and the fullntext of non-discarded citations wasnsought and appraised by twonresearchers independently. Overall, 10ncomparative studies were identified.nData about all proposed outcomesnand reported results were recorded.nThe authors identified a striking lacknof rigorous research into the effects ofnconsumer Internet use on healthnoutcomes. From the studies that werenidentified, some evidence emerged tonsuggest that Internet-based materialsnmay provide consumers withnnecessary information and support inna timely manner to achieve positivenhealth outcomes. With regard tonhealth service utilisation outcomes,nalthough the overall effectiveness ofnInternet use was unclear, the resultsnsuggested that the Internet maynimpact on the overall cost-effectivenessnof health service provision andnworkflow practices. The authorsnconclude that well-designedncontrolled studies were required toninvestigate the risks and benefits ofnusing the Internet.