A critical evaluation of Web sites offering patient information on tinnitus.

The Internet is a vast information resource for both patients and healthcare professionals. However, the quality and content often lack formal scrutiny, so we examined the quality of patient information regarding tinnitus on the Internet. Using the three most popular search engines (google.com, yahoo.com, and msn.com), we found pertinent Web sites using the search term tinnitus. Web sites' accountability and authorship were evaluated using previously published criteria. The quality of patient information about tinnitus was assessed using a new 10-point scale, the Tinnitus Information Value (TIV). Statistical analysis was performed using the independent sample t-test (p