Washington, May 26 (ANI): American researchers have unveiled a new and improved approach that can help surfers to evaluate web-based health information.
A research review conducted by a team from the University of Florida found that 86 per cent of adult patients use the internet to get answers to health-related questions, but only 28 to 41 per cent consult primary healthcare providers about the information they find out.
Dr Bryan A Weber, an associate professor from the University”s College of Nursing, said: “This discrepancy suggests that the majority of users accept web-based health recommendations in lieu of professional advice.
“The internet is a wonderful resource if used properly and there are some very informative and reliable health websites available if patients know what to look for.”
And so the team have come up with an acronym – GATOR (genuine, accurate, trustworthy, origin and readability) – to encourage healthy surfing.
They are also encouraging patients to discuss what they have found on the internet with healthcare professionals, rather than using that information as a substitute for professional medical advice.
Dr Weber said: “Some people use the internet to find out more about medical conditions because they find it more convenient, less embarrassing or it enables them to avoid healthcare costs.
“The big problem is that health sites are not regulated and it is down to the company or individual running the site to determine how accurate, responsible and frequently updated any information is.
“Added to that, the majority of patients don”t have the medical knowledge to evaluate the reliability of the advice they are being given.
“We recognise that it is inevitable that the majority of patients will continue to seek health information online. That”s why we”ve developed the acronym, to help patients to find and evaluate health information while avoiding the negative consequences from trying unsafe recommendations drawn from untrustworthy sites.”
He added: “The GATOR approach to assessing health information websites is an easy to remember strategy that requires few resources to implement and can be taught to patients in just a few minutes.
“We hope that it will encourage safer surfing and encourage patients to use the internet as a starting point for health discussions, rather than as a substitute for professional healthcare advice.”
The approach has been discussed in the May issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing. (ANI)
Secret sex-message codes used by teens that parents should know of
Washington, May 23 (ANI): Do you see red if your teenage kid is texting “8″? If not, then it’s time you should know that this humble numerical message actually means that your child is suggesting oral sex, according to a new list by NetLingo.com.
Titled ‘Top 50 Text Acronyms Parents Should Know’, the list compiled by contains terms that are completely unknown to most people, teenaged or otherwise.
“I swear, I’ve used the Internet for 13 years, and still insist half of this stuff is either made up or never used,” Fox News quoted a commenter on online aggregator site Digg as saying.
And a cell-phone expert- Sascha Segan of PC Magazine-agrees: “I honestly have to say I have never seen most of these terms. It looks like a lot of them come from online sex chat rooms, and not just any chat rooms, but sadomasochistic ones.”
Some of the very specific terms on the list, even include terms like “NIFOC” that means “Nude In Front Of The Computer”, and “ILF/MD” that apparently means “I Love Female/Male Dominance”.
NetLingo.com is a Web site devoted to collating and explaining online jargon, and had compiled the list only a couple of years back, and each term listed there clicks through to a page indicating its origin.
“This is stuff that’s being used all across the Internet, in instant messaging, in chat rooms, in text messaging. There are spikes in the amount of usage for each acronym, and regional variations,” said Erin Jansen, founder of NetLingo.com.
While Jansen’s not claiming that every teenager is using each acronym, ut she insists that all of them are things that parents should be aware of.
“It’s a good overview of what parents ought to be aware of, even if their kids aren’t going to these weird chat rooms, because kids pick them up anyway. It’s like when I was young and my friends and I looked up dirty words in the dictionary,” Jansen says.
Segan, however, isn’t convinced that a middle-school-aged teen would soon be fluent in bondage terminology.
However, some of the terms are accurate, chiefly the ones having to do with the presence of parents in the room, or “parent or mom over shoulder”.
“CD9, POS, MOS-those are real. But a lot of the other stuff is just laughably out of date,” he said.
NetLingo.com does have a longer list of commonly used text terms, which is more useful.
“That’s the one parents should be looking at. If parents don’t know those, it doesn’t mean they’re old-it just means they’re not tuned into Internet culture,” said Segan. (ANI)