Table 2.

Website credibility checklist.

Item	Criteria	Score criteria
1	Referencing or citations obtained from peer-reviewed journals	1 point if the articles for which the references are obtained are published in peer-reviewed journals [16,44]
2	Website updated within last 24 months	The latest update should be within the past 24 months [45]
3	Avoids anecdotal evidence for making claims	Does not use anecdotal evidence as a basis for claims; quoting a case study without using claims is acceptable [46]
4	Mailing address present	Physical contact address of the website clearly stated [45]
5	Contact information available	Contact information including name, position, telephone number, address, and email [47]
6	Sponsorship stated	Any sponsorship should be clearly stated
7	Organizational privacy policy stated	Organization privacy policy should be clearly stated [47]
8	Declaration of the author’s qualification	Author’s qualification should be health care related [16,44]
9	Paid access tab present	If paid access is available, the difference in the information obtained from paid vs unpaid access should be clearly stated [48]
10	Disclosure of funding or conflicts of interest	Conflicts of interest and funding disclosure should be clearly stated [44]
11	The presence of an HONcode seal or third-party certification	Presence of a HONcodea seal or any other third-party certification [16]
12	Advertisement neutral	Advertisements should steer clear from the website information (eg, no pop-ups related to the website content) [16]
13	Disclaimer regarding web-based health information	A disclaimer should be clearly stated that web-based health information does not replace a practitioner’s advice [44]

^aHONcode: Health on the Net Code of Conduct.