Evaluating the Quality of Health-Related WeChat Public Accounts: Cross-Sectional Study (Preprint)

• DOI: 10.2196/preprints.14826
• Publication Date: 2020-05-08T14:46:20Z
• Authors: Fuzhi Wang; Zhuoxin Wang; Weiwei Sun; Xiumu Yang; Zhiwei Bian; Lining Shen; Wei Pan; Peng Liu; Xingzhi Chen; Lianguo Fu; Fan Zhang; Dan Luo
• Keywords: Conformity assessment

<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> As representatives of health information communication platforms accessed through mobile phones and terminals, health-related WeChat public accounts (HWPAs) have a large consumer base in the Chinese-speaking world. However, there is still lack general understanding status quo HWPAs quality articles they release. </sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> The aims this study were to assess conformity Health on Net Foundation Code Conduct (HONcode) evaluate suitability disseminated by HWPAs. <title>METHODS</title> survey was conducted from April 23 May 5, 2019. Based monthly (March 1-31, 2019) Index provided Qingbo Big Data, top 100 examined their HONcode compliance. first four published each HWPA dates selected as samples suitability. All materials assessed three raters. using checklist Suitability Assessment Materials (SAM) score sheet. Data analysis performed with SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) Excel 2013 (Microsoft Washington DC, USA). <title>RESULTS</title> A total 93 210 released included study. For six eight principles, nearly consistently did not meet requirements HONcode. certified Tencent Corporation (66/93, 71%) generally slightly superior those without such certification (27/93, 29%) terms compliance principles. mean SAM for 67.72 (SD 10.930), which indicated “adequate” There no significant difference between scores uncertified (&lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;=.07), except literacy dimension (t&lt;sub&gt;df=97&lt;/sub&gt;=–2.418, &lt;i&gt;P&lt;/i&gt;=.02). <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> had low conformity. Although at moderate level, problems identified, difficulty tracing sources, excessive implicit advertisements, irregular usage charts. In addition, approval conducive improvement service quality.