Online information in Spanish on probiotics, yoghurt, kefir, kombucha, fibre and prebiotics: an analysis of the quality of information and the certainty of the evidence supporting health claims

Objective: To examine the certainty of the evidence supporting health claims about probiotics, yoghurt, kefir, kombucha, fibre and prebiotics, and to assess the quality of online information in Spanish.

Design: Content analysis.

Methods: We compiled a data set of 114 web pages by searching six popular search phrases in Spanish relating to probiotics, yoghurt, kefir, kombucha, fibre and prebiotics on Google.es and coded them for typology and health claims. We examined the certainty of the evidence for health claims from systematic reviews. Information quality was assessed according to 10 criteria, where a web page: mentions scientific publications and reports their conclusions; quantifies relative and absolute effects; acknowledges some limitations; discusses certainty of evidence; reports the potential harms, alternatives and costs; and does not argue based on personal experiences.

Results: Gastrointestinal health (86.0%), general health (57.9%), cardiovascular health (53.5%) and immune system health (50.9%) were the most widely mentioned topics. Half of claims (52.6%, 70/133) were supported by evidence from systematic reviews. Probiotics had the highest number of claims supported by evidence and kombucha the lowest. The highest certainty was found for antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, necrotising enterocolitis and otitis (moderate) in probiotics and yoghurt, infectious diarrhoea and hepatic encephalopathy (moderate) in prebiotics, and cardiovascular health (high to moderate) and colorectal cancer (moderate) in fibre. On a scale of 0-10, the median information quality score for all web pages was 3. Only 18.4% reported study conclusions, 7.9% quantified the effects, 28.9% acknowledged some limitations in the research and 42.1% reported potential harms.

Conclusions: Most online health claims for dietary interventions intended for improving health through the gut microbiome are supported by low or very low certainty of evidence. Online information does not align with the evidence and is incomplete or unbalanced.