Analysis of chats on French internet forums about drugs and pregnancy. (24th September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Palosse‐Cantaloube, Lucie; Lacroix, Isabelle; Rousseau, Vanessa; Bagheri, Haleh; Montastruc, Jean‐Louis; Damase‐Michel, Christine
• Is Part Of: Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety. Volume 23:Number 12(2014:Dec.)
• Page Start: 1330
• Page End: 1333
• Publication Date: 2014-09-24
• Subjects: Pharmacoepidemiology -- Periodicals; Chemotherapy -- Periodicals; Epidemiology -- Periodicals; 615.705
• DOI: 10.1002/pds.3709
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1053-8569

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>ABSTRACT</title> <sec id="pds3709-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <title>Purpose</title> <p>Some pregnant women use the internet to search for medical information. However, online information is not controlled. The objectives were to describe French online chats about drugs and pregnancy and evaluate the quality and reliability of information shared by internet users.</p> </sec> <sec id="pds3709-sec-0002" sec-type="section"> <title>Methods</title> <p>This French descriptive study was performed in November 2012. In order to identify drugs and pregnancy‐related forum websites, we used three French key words: forum, pregnancy and drug. We explored the first 10 websites from the search result. Diseases were described using the International Classification of Diseases and drugs classified with the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical codes and the FDA risk classification.</p> </sec> <sec id="pds3709-sec-0003" sec-type="section"> <title>Results</title> <p>We selected 115 questions that were mainly posted by pregnant internet users in French forums. Drugs raising questions were mostly "nervous system, " "anti‐infective for systemic use" and "respiratory system" drugs. The risk during pregnancy for nearly half of these drugs had not been evaluated properly. Health professionals were only involved in 7% of the 214 answers. Internet users advised to take a drug in 21% of their answers. Thirty‐four percent of those recommended drugs had not been well‐evaluated or were potentially at risk during pregnancy. Finally, 12% of the answers could be at risk for pregnant woman.</p> </sec> <sec id="pds3709-sec-0004" sec-type="section"> <title>Conclusions</title> <p>This study shows that information related to drugs and pregnancy in online chats could be at risk for pregnant women. Internet users must be aware that online forums are not reliable sources of information. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.</p> </sec> </abstract>