OBJECTIVE: To analyze the information about breast self examination available on the Internet. Methods: A descriptive documental study was performed via a search on the Google®and Yahoo® websites using the phrase "breast self examination" in Portuguese, and the first 50 results from each site were analyzed using the criteria of the American Medical Association and Health on the Net. Results: 68 sites were selected and analyzed. Most of the sites were in the commercial domain, six were governmental sites and five were Portuguese sites. More than half had restrictions regarding criteria of authority and authorship; 61% did not have contact details and 52.94% considered breast self exam as part of a set of measures; 26.47% had correct and complete evidence-based content; 33.82% had context references. Government WebPages of health or professional institutions had restrictions regarding content or presentation. Conclusions: The information about breast self exam is heterogeneous. Only a small number of websites were concerned about quality criteria, both in terms of construction and content. The bulk of the information available is not evidence-based and there is potentially dangerous information for the patient. It is necessary to improve the quality of websites dealing with breast self exam.
Breast self exam; Internet; Consumer health information
