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Abstract
The most popular complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatment is a natural product, omega-3 fatty acids, most commonly found in fish oil. In this exploratory study, coverage of omega-3 fatty acids/fish oil on the web sites of the top ten hospitals in the United States was examined. Phrase searches on both terms were entered in the internal search engines of the hospital web sites. Search results indicate that coverage of this CAM natural product is mostly located on web pages for news and newsletters, and for research. Coverage is mostly positive, in particular, for the purported cardiovascular benefits of omega-3 fatty acids/fish oil. However, critical coverage disputing one or more claims for the health benefits of omega-3/fish oil was also found on hospital web sites.