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Readability and quality assessment of internet‐based patient education materials related to laryngeal cancer
Author(s) -
Narwani Vishal,
Nalamada Keerthana,
Lee Michael,
Kothari Prasad,
Lakhani Raj
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.23939
Subject(s) - readability , medicine , the internet , grade level , cancer , quality (philosophy) , patient education , medical physics , reading (process) , health information , confidence interval , head and neck cancer , family medicine , health care , psychology , world wide web , computer science , mathematics education , philosophy , epistemology , political science , law , economics , programming language , economic growth
Background Patients are increasingly using the internet to access health‐related information. The purpose of this study was to assess the readability and quality of laryngeal cancer‐related websites. Methods Patient education materials were identified by performing an internet search using 3 search engines. Readability was assessed using Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and Gunning Fog Index (GFI). The DISCERN instrument was utilized to assess quality of health information. Results A total of 54 websites were included in the analysis. The mean readability scores were as follows: FRES, 48.2 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 44.8–51.6); FKGL, 10.9 (95% CI = 10.3–11.5); and GFI, 13.8 (95% CI = 11.3–16.3). These scores suggest that, on average, online information about patients with laryngeal cancer is written at an advanced level. The mean DISCERN score was 49.8 (95% CI = 45.4–54.2), suggesting that online information is of variable quality. Conclusion Our study suggests much of the laryngeal cancer information available online is of suboptimal quality and written at a level too difficult for the average adult to read comfortably. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: 601–605, 2016