Table 2.
Temporal trends in online health information sources reported across 81 included studiesa.
| Type of source | Time | Number of studies | Reported references | ||||
| 2002-2010, n (%) | 2011-2018, n (%) | 2019-2025, n (%) |
|
|
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| General internet | 8/12 (67) | 13/29 (45) | 25/40 (63) | 46 | [23,41,42,44-49,52,54,55,58,60,61,66,67,69-71,73-75, 78,79,81,84,85,93-97,101-104,106,107,109,110,113-117] |
||
| Social media and online forums (eg, Facebook, WeChat) | 2/12 (17) | 9/29 (31) | 27/40 (68) | 38 | [39,40,52,55,57,59,63-65,68,72,76,77,80,82,83,85,86, 88-94,98,99,101,102,104,105,107,108,110-112,116,117] |
||
| Health-related websites (eg, WebMD, Mayo Clinic) | 5/12 (42) | 7/29 (24) | 4/40 (10) | 16 | [38-40,44,48,50,51,53,56,58,62,65,76,86,90,91] | ||
| Search engine (eg, Google, Bing) | 1/12 (8) | 4/29 (14) | 10/40 (25) | 15 | [43,59,62,64,72,77,80,86-91,97,100] | ||
| Diabetes-specific website (eg, American Diabetes Association, Children with Diabetes) | 2/12 (17) | 4/29 (14) | 3/40 (8) | 9 | [40,48,50,51,57,59,80,90,112] | ||
| Government and public health websites (eg, NICEb guideline, Public Health Agency of Sweden) | 0/0 (0) | 3/29 (10) | 4/40 (10) | 7 | [50,64,68,76,87,88,90] | ||
| Mobile health apps | 0/0 (0) | 0/0 (0) | 6/40 (15) | 6 | [88,90,99,107-109] | ||
| Generative artificial intelligence chatbots | 0/0 (0) | 0/0 (0) | 1/40 (3) | 1 | [109] | ||
| Other sources (news websites, email, and web-based courses) | 2/12 (17) | 2/29 (7) | 4/40 (10) | 8 | [40,41,53,65,87,90,99,104] | ||
aValues represent the percentage of studies within each publication period that reported each source category (2002-2010, n=12; 2011-2018, n=29; and 2019-2025, n=40). Categories are not mutually exclusive, and individual studies could report multiple sources.
bNICE: National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.