blogging in infectious diseases 835
figure 1. Flowchart of the search strategy.
88 blogs we analyzed. Among these, the median rank was 4.9 million (0.9–10.4 million).
Quality of Blog Content
Overall, 51 (58%) blogs centered on research, whereas 30 (34%) had a more practical approach with a clear implication in routine practice. The content spectrum was considered narrow for 32 (36%) blogs and broad for 25 (26%) blogs. An in-depth analysis of content showed that 26 blogs focused on 1 specific topic, such as a particular disease or geographical area. Overall, 33 bloggers (37%) posted weekly and 33 bloggers
(37%) posted monthly, representing 74% of all blogs, while 9 bloggers (10%) posted daily. Moverover, blog aims were con- sidered clear for 24 blogs (26%); the field covered was con- sidered broad for 25 blogs (29%); presentation was good for 22 blogs (25%); 52 blogs (60%) were easy to read; and 46 blogs (53%) included expert interpretation (Figure 2). Using our development tool, the median overall score was 49 of 72 (interquartile range [IQR]: 41–55; range, 23–64.4). Blogs with a high quality level (fourth quartile in the distribution of scores) included pictures, video, blogrolls, and guest posts by experts in the field. They had a high frequency of posts, a clear
mission statement, and an opinion/analysis given by bloggers. Among the top 10 blogs (2 equally ranked), 3 focused on infectious diseases, 6 focused on microbiology, and 2 focused on infection control (Table 3). The correlation between a traffic rank value and a high quality score was not statistically significant (P=.54). Using a previously published checklist, the 88 blogs yielded
the following results: a mean score of 4.6 of 9 for credibility of the resource, 6.5 of 7 for the content, and 2.9 of 3 for the design of the blog. The final mean score was 14 (median, 15; IQR, 12–16).13 Overall, the comparison of scores between the 2 scales showed a significant difference (P<.01). Of the top 10 blogs identified using the developed tool, 8 scored ≥16 with the published checklist, which corresponded to the third quartile of the distribution (Appendices 4 and 5).
Blogger Perceptions
Among the 58 bloggers for whom contact information was available, 29 bloggers agreed to participate to the survey. This sample had a gender ratio representative of the overall study population, and this group was mainly composed of academic researchers (n=14, 48%). The analysis of verbatim responses revealed that bloggers were mainly motivated to
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