Assessment of the digestive system malignancy information in Wikipedia and Baidu Encyclopedia: a longitudinal study

Background: An increasing number of patients search for medical information on the Internet if they have health problems. The reliability of the online medical information is not yet known. Baidu Encyclopedia and Wikipedia are the most widely used Chinese and English search engines. The quality of the online medical information in these websites needs to be evaluated. We perform this research study to evaluate the quality and timeliness of articles related to digestive system malignancy in articles retrieved from these encyclopedias. A 3-year follow-up was conducted to determine if the quality and timeliness of the articles improved, and comparisons were made between the 2 encyclopedias. Methods: We conducted a search of Wikipedia and Baidu Encyclopedia based on the classification codes of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (10th revision, version 2016), and evaluated the retrieved articles related to digestive system malignancy using the DISCERN instrument. The update timeliness of these websites were evaluated by calculating the update interval of the articles. Results: In 2019 and 2022, we retrieved 50 and 52 articles, respectively, from Baidu Encyclopedia, representing an increase of 2 articles and no deleted articles, and 30 and 31 articles, respectively, from Wikipedia, representing an increase of 1 article and no deleted articles. According to the scores calculated using the DISCERN instrument, in both 2019 and 2022, Wikipedia scored higher than Baidu Encyclopedia in Sections 1 and 2, and the difference was statistically significant. The total score of Wikipedia was higher than that of Baidu Encyclopedia, and the difference was statistically significant. The update interval of Wikipedia was shorter than that of Baidu Encyclopedia with better timeliness and statistical significance. Conclusions: The quality and timeliness of the digestive system malignancy articles on Wikipedia are better than those on Baidu Encyclopedia. The quality of both the Baidu Encyclopedia and Wikipedia articles had improved over the last 3 years. However, there is still no guarantee of the comprehensiveness or reliability of the treatment information obtained from the Internet.