TY  - JOUR
AU  - Chen, Wen
AU  - Boggero, Andrea
AU  - Del Puente, Giovanni
AU  - Olcese, Martina
AU  - Prestia, Davide
AU  - Jahrami, Haitham
AU  - Chalghaf, Nasr
AU  - Guelmami, Noomen
AU  - Azaiez, Fairouz
AU  - Bragazzi, Nicola Luigi
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/11/11
TI  - Googling for Suicide–Content and Quality Analysis of Suicide-Related Websites: Thematic Analysis
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e29146
VL  - 5
IS  - 11
KW  - suicide
KW  - internet
KW  - world wide web
KW  - content analysis
KW  - HONcode
KW  - mental health
KW  - webpage
KW  - health information
KW  - eHealth
AB  - Background: Suicide represents a public health concern, imposing a dramatic burden. Prosuicide websites are “virtual pathways” facilitating a rise in suicidal behaviors, especially among socially isolated, susceptible individuals. Objective: The aim of this study is to characterize suicide-related webpages in the Italian language. Methods: The first 5 most commonly used search engines in Italy (ie, Bing, Virgilio, Yahoo, Google, and Libero) were mined using the term “suicidio” (Italian for suicide). For each search, the first 100 webpages were considered. Websites resulting from each search were collected and duplicates deleted so that unique webpages could be analyzed and rated with the HONcode instrument Results: A total of 65 webpages were included: 12.5% (8/64) were antisuicide and 6.3% (4/64) explicitly prosuicide. The majority of the included websites had a mixed or neutral attitude toward suicide (52/64, 81.2%) and had informative content and purpose (39/64, 60.9%). Most webpages targeted adolescents as an age group (38/64, 59.4%), contained a reference to other psychiatric disorders or comorbidities (42/64, 65.6%), included medical/professional supervision or guidance (45/64, 70.3%), lacked figures or pictures related to suicide (41/64, 64.1%), and did not contain any access restraint (62/64, 96.9%). The major shortcoming to this study is the small sample size of webpages analyzed and the search limited to the keyword “suicide.” Conclusions: Specialized mental health professionals should try to improve their presence online by providing high-quality material. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2021/11/e29146
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/29146
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34689118
DO  - 10.2196/29146
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/29146
ER  -