Open AccessKyphosis-Related Information On The Internet Is the Quality, Content and Readability Sufficient for the Patients?
Author(s) -
Anıl Ağar,
Adem Şahin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
global spine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.398
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 2192-5690
pISSN - 2192-5682
DOI - 10.1177/21925682211015955
Subject(s) - readability , medicine , quality score , the internet , kyphosis , quality (philosophy) , significant difference , world wide web , surgery , computer science , metric (unit) , philosophy , operations management , radiography , epistemology , economics , programming language
Study Design: A quality-control Internet-based study using recognized quality scoring systems.Objective: The aim of the study is to evaluate the quality, content and readability of online information on kyphosis.Methods: The 3 most frequently used search engines were identified and a search for “Kyphosis” was made in each. The 2 reviewers categorized their Web-sites by type, and the quality of each was assessed using well-known scoring systems, including the DISCERN score, JAMA benchmark, GQS, and the kyphosis specific content score. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level (FKGL) was used to assess the readability. The quality of the information was also evaluated according to the presence and absence of the HONcode.Results: Sixty unique Web sites were identified and analyzed. The distribution of the categories was 33 (55%) medical, 22 (36.7%) academic, 2 (3.3%) non-physician, 2 (3.3%) commercial and 1 (1.7%) physician. There wasn’t statistically significant difference between the sources in terms of DISCERN, JAMA, GQS and KSC scores ( P > 0.05). However, a review of the FKGL scores revealed that the academic-based websites’ FKGL score was significantly higher than the medical-based websites ( P: 0.007). Also there wasn’t statistically significant difference among the DISCERN, JAMA, GQS, KSC, FKRS and FKGL scores of the web-sites according to the HON code’s presence ( P > 0.05).Conclusion: Information about kyphosis on the Internet is of limited quality and low information value. The readability of the online information in our results showed a significantly higher reading level than the sixth grade level recommended by the AMA and NIH.