Googling for health advice may lead you up the garden path but it is unlikely to cause harm, according to two separate international studies. A UK study, published online in Archives of Childhood Disease April 6, 2010, assessed the reliability and accuracy of  medical advice, relating to children, over a range of UK-based websites found using Google. The Nottingham-based researchers say the quality of advice varied widely depending on the question asked and who runs the site. Three of the five topics searched returned the correct information in almost all cases. However, the researchers found questions regarding MMR and autism and HIV and breastfeeding were answered “very poorly”. Overall, 197 (39%) of the 500 sites searched gave correct information, 57 (11%) gave incorrect information while 246 (49%) did not answer the question or were unrelated to the question. Government-run sites were the only completely reliable UK source, they found. That said, if comparisons can be drawn between countries, a survey conducted in the US found little harm in looking online for answers to what ails you. Pew Internet Project and the California HealthCare Foundation collected data on harm caused by following medical advice or health information found on the internet. They found only 2% of adults living with chronic disease and 3% of adults with no chronic disease reported harm to themselves or someone they know as a result of online health information. About a third to a half of those studied said their use of online health infomation had been helpful.