Study warns that 90% of medical entries on Wikipedia contain mistakes

A US study has found that medical information available on Wikipedia is often incorrect.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, investigated the accuracy of entries on the online encyclopaedia, can be edited by anybody.

It has previously been reported that up to 70% of doctors and medical students use the website as a reference point.

Researchers compared pages on conditions including lung cancer, depression, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and back pain with the latest medical research in these areas. The research papers they used were peer-reviewed, which meant that they had to each be quality checked by other experts in the field before being published.

The researchers discovered that nine out of 10 articles contained information that went against the latest medical research.

While the website is trying to improve the accuracy of the information on its pages, the authors of the study recommend that people concerned about their health speak to their doctor first.

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Read the journal article.

The ELF website: a reliable resource

The ELF website contains reliable evidence-based information from the European Respiratory Society (ERS).

The lung diseases and risk factors section of the ELF website has been taken from the European Lung White Book, published by the ERS. Each section has been reviewed by an expert from ERS to ensure it is accurate and reliable.

Visit the lung diseases and risk factor section.