Scientists
in the US compared entries about conditions such as heart disease,
lung cancer, depression and diabetes with peer-reviewed medical research.
They said most articles in Wikipedia contained "many errors".
Wikimedia UK, its British arm, said it was "crucial" that
people with health concerns spoke to their GP first.
Open-access
'concerns'
The online encyclopaedia is a charity, and has 30 million articles
in 285 languages.
It can be edited by anybody, but many volunteers from the
medical profession check the pages for inaccuracies, said Wikimedia UK.
The open-access nature has "raised concern" among
doctors about its reliability, as it is the sixth most popular site on the
internet, the US authors of the research, published in the Journal of the
American Osteopathic Association, said.
Up to 70% of physicians and medical students use the tool,
they say.
The 10 researchers across America looked at online articles
for 10 of the "most costly" conditions in the US, including
osteoarthritis, back problems and asthma.
They printed off the articles on 25 April 2012 to analyse, and
discovered that 90% of the entries made statements that contradicted latest
medical research.
Wikipedia, like any encyclopaedia, should not take
the place of a qualified medical practitioner”
Stevie
Benton Wikimedia UK
Lead author Dr Robert Hasty, of the Wallace
School of Osteopathic Medicine in North Carolina, said: "While Wikipedia
is a convenient tool for conducting research, from a public health standpoint
patients should not use it as a primary resource because those articles do not
go through the same peer-review process as medical journals."
Dr Hasty added the "best resource" for people worried about
their health was their doctor.
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