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Analysis of the Information Quality of Bariatric Surgery Smartphone Applications Using the Silberg Scale

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Abstract

There is a paucity of literature that has evaluated the information quality of the current bariatric and obesity applications. Our objective was to evaluate the quality of currently available smartphone applications for bariatric-patient care using the Silberg scale. The two most widely used smartphone application online stores were searched in June 2014 and a total of 39 applications were evaluated. The average Silberg score of the 39 applications was 4.0 ± 1.76. The current gaps of information quality include the lack of provision of appropriate references, full disclosure of sponsorship, and accurate disclosure whether the application has been modified in the past month.

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Acknowledgments

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Authors’ Information

MWBZ is currently a Psychiatry Specialist Registrar with the National Healthcare Group, Singapore. He has a special interest in the application of technologies in advancing psychiatry. RCMH is an assistant professor and consultant psychiatrist with the Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He is the education director for undergraduate psychiatry education. RH and SS are bariatric psychiatrists with the University Health Network and the University of Toronto, Toronto

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Addictions Management Service, Institute of Mental Health, 10 Buangkok Green Medical Park, Singapore, 539747, Singapore

    Melvyn W. B. Zhang

  2. Level 9, Department of Psychological Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Tower Block, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore, 119074, Singapore

    Roger C. M. Ho

  3. University Health Network, Centre for Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Raed Hawa & Sanjeev Sockalingam

Authors
  1. Melvyn W. B. Zhang
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  2. Roger C. M. Ho
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  3. Raed Hawa
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  4. Sanjeev Sockalingam
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melvyn W. B. Zhang.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Disclosures

One of the authors is the co-clinical director in a Level 1A bariatric surgery Centre of Excellence as per the American College of Surgeons. He works in an inter-professional bariatric surgery clinic and has published with surgeons on both psychosocial and surgical outcomes related to the procedure.

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Zhang, M.W.B., Ho, R.C.M., Hawa, R. et al. Analysis of the Information Quality of Bariatric Surgery Smartphone Applications Using the Silberg Scale. OBES SURG 26, 163–168 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-015-1890-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11695-015-1890-5

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