A quantitative content analysis was performed on 398 blog posts from a constructed 1-week sample of posts in WebMD, Yahoo!Health Expert Blogs, and independently hosted blogs.
Most health and medical blog posts highlighted and provided commentary pertaining to medical issues found in external media such as books, television, Web sites, magazines, and newspapers
Only 16% contained actual health or medical information.
Distinct differences in patterns of content were evident between credentialed and noncredentialed bloggers, as well as different blog hosts.
References:
Health and medical blog content and its relationships with blogger credentials and blog host. Buis LR, Carpenter S. Health Commun. 2009 Dec;24(8):703-10.
Comments from Google Buzz:
Shabber Hussain - Now if I can some how know about those 16% medical blogs that "contain actual health or medical information", it should make my day. Feb 26
All in all, a very interesting article. I think it needs to be closely read and discussed in medical blogosphere. Feb 26
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Recommendation and review posted by G. Smith