Evaluation of Persian Anxiety Disorders Websites by WebMedQual Scale

Introduction: Many people are looking for information about anxiety disorders on the Internet. These disorders impair quality of life and increase risk of various diseases. Therefore it is necessary to evaluate the web-based information about these problems and to introduce the authentic websites for essential information. The purpose of this study was to evaluate quality of Persian anxiety disorders websites based on WebMedQual scale. Methods: This study is a survey and applied studies. In order to collect data, WebMedQual scale was used that localized by librarian, psychology and website designer experts. The population of this study consisted of 15 Persian anxiety disorders websites (anxiety and obsessive). Maximum and minimum points were 82 and 0 for each websites and Mean points was 41.5. In order to analyze the data used single-sample T-test in SPSS 20 software and findings were presented as mean and optimal score. Results: Based on WebMedQual scale the average ratings of Persian anxiety disorders websites in the content (7.40±2.18), authority of source (5.10±2.11), accessibility and availability 2.23±0.37), links (1.37±1.09), and user support (4.57±1.33) and confidentiality and privacy (3.07±2.95) indicators is poor and below average. But in design indicator (9.27±1.29) is higher than average. The best websites of Anxiety Disorders were "Iran Clinical Psychology Association" and "Ravanyar "and the worst website was "yek Frakav". Conclusion: According to results it is essential for users to criticize website content and do not trust it without credit standards of sources. Keywords: Evaluation; Anxiety Disorders; Internet.