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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine

Most Popular Diet Websites Not Always the Best, Says Consumer Reports

Millions of senior citizens and others rely on these sites in fighting obesity

October 4, 2006 – Being popular with readers does not necessarily equate with quality, according to an analysis by Consumer Reports of the 20 diet information Websites most visited online. More than a quarter of the Web’s 20 top diet information sites lack basic information about information sources, the degree to which advertising may or may not influence content on their site, and credentials or potential biases of their authors.

Millions of people, including many senior citizens, worldwide are concerned about rising obesity rates and incidents of weight-related health problems. In addition, increasing numbers of people turn to the Web for health information. To help consumers make the best diet and weight management information choices, Consumer Reports WebWatch and the Health Improvement Institute rated the top 20 most-trafficked diet sites, and diet sections of major sites.

“Some of these sites, and sections of major sites, are excellent diet and weight-loss resources,” said Beau Brendler, Consumer Reports WebWatch’s director. “Others appear driven by marketing goals.”

The 19 raters who tested the sites include medical doctors, health care industry executives, medical librarians and health Web site senior producers and executives. A three-person committee reviewed their qualifications to be raters.

“Consumers need to know how well a diet plan works, how much it costs, and that weight management information is reliable,” said Peter Goldschmidt, President and Founder of the Health Improvement Institute. “Consumers should choose sites with strong contents and sound editorial policies and procedures. These ratings enable such choices.”

Raters tested sites with for-pay diet and self-help programs by signing up and paying for subscriptions, then examining the content received.

Results:
• Of 20 diet sites, or diet and fitness sections of major sites, to be rated, three were given the highest rating of “Excellent”: Aetna InteliHealth, MedicineNet.com, and MayoClinic.com.
• Two received a “Very Good” rating: WebMD and National Institutes of Health.
• Three were given a rating of “Good”: eDiets.com, RealAge and WeightWatchers.com.
• Six sites rated “Fair”: MSN Health & Fitness, About Health & Fitness, Yahoo! Health, The Sonoma Diet, The Biggest Loser Club and The South Beach Diet Online.
• Six were given the lowest rating of “Poor”: AOL Health, QualityHealth.com, Light 'n Fit, Healthology, Prevention.com and TrimLife.
• Three of the 20 sites are non-profit, or run by non-profit ventures that accept advertising. Two of these received the highest rating.
• The best sites offered a clear distinction between editorial content and sponsored content.
• Sites rated “excellent” included unbiased, peer-reviewed content written by health professionals.
• Sites rated “Fair and “Poor”  often failed to disclose that health content and surveys were sponsored by advertisers, did not clearly display policies to correct false, misleading or incorrect information, and seemed to be functioning as marketing sites for health products.

Methodology:
Using a tool based on WebWatch’s guidelines for Web site credibility and HII criteria for health information, a panel of health and medical experts examined 20 sites in-depth over a period of more than one month, then rated each using long-established Consumer Reports-style methods and the familiar trademarked symbols. The list was determined using Nielsen/NetRatings and WebWatch data.

Overall ratings scores were determined from ten different attributes, including identity, advertising and sponsorship disclosure, ease of use, privacy, contents, authorship, references, editorial policies and diet self-help plans. Those sites that did not have plans were not penalized in scoring.

The ratings do not test the scientific accuracy and validity of treatments described, nor the medical effectiveness of specific diets. However, a number of the ratings attributes are intended to evaluate information quality. Sites that scored well in contents, authorship, references and transparency of editorial policies scored the highest overall.

See detailed ratings for each of the top 20 most-trafficked sites at http://www.ConsumerReports.org.

Notes:

WebWatch and the HII published the first-ever ratings of the top 20 most-trafficked health information Web sites at WebWatch’s June 2005 “Trust or Consequence” conference in San Francisco. Health experts, consumers and the media gathered to learn how site reliability, credibility and transparency affect consumers in their search for health information online.

Web publishers interested in applying the WebWatch guidelines to their own sites can click here for the guidelines. The guidelines are also a useful source for consumers as a way to evaluate the quality of Web sites. WebWatch invites feedback and commentary on the ratings at its blog, The UnSponsored Link, click here.

In-depth information about methodology and research methods can be found at http://www.healthratings.org.

About Consumer Reports WebWatch
Consumer Reports WebWatch is the leader in investigative reporting on trust and credibility in the online marketplace. WebWatch uses the proven methods of Consumer Reports to produce comprehensive research and serves as a daily resource of unbiased and trustworthy information. Its research agenda includes health, financial services, news and information sites, childrens’ sites and general issues of concern to consumers on the Web, such as privacy, spyware and information security. Consumer Reports WebWatch at Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org, acknowledges these organizations that helped create us: The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Open Society Institute. WebWatch's investigative reports, articles and news are available to the general public at www.consumerwebwatch.org. WebWatch serves as a special unpaid adviser to the StopBadware.org project of The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Oxford Internet Institute.

About Consumers Union
Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, is an expert, independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to work for a fair, just, and safe marketplace for all consumers and to empower consumers to protect themselves. To achieve this mission, we test, inform, and protect. To maintain our independence and impartiality, CU accepts no outside advertising, no free test samples, and has no agenda other than the interests of consumers. CU supports itself through the sale of its information products and services, individual contributions, and a few noncommercial grants. Consumer Reports content can be found online at www.ConsumerReports.org. Consumers Union's public policy work can be found online at www.ConsumersUnion.org.

Consumers Union also publishes paid-subscription health information print and online products. These were not rated because they are not among the top 20 most-trafficked diet sites. In the coming months, HealthRatings.org (http://www.healthratings.org) will publish ratings of the online information products using the same criteria it has applied to all Web sites so far.

About Health Improvement Institute
Health Improvement Institute is a non-profit, tax exempt, 501(c)3, charitable organization dedicated to improving the quality and productivity of America's health care. The Institute's principal program objective is to provide information to enable people to make informed health care choices. The Institute has established expertise in evaluating the quality of health information on the Internet, conducts forms and workshops, and sponsors national awards programs to recognize excellence, including the Aesculapius Award for excellence in health communication. For more information, visit www.hii.org.

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