Comprehensiveness of online sources for patient education on otosclerosis
Frontiers in Surgery, cilt.11, 2024 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 11
- Basım Tarihi: 2024
- Doi Numarası: 10.3389/fsurg.2024.1327793
- Dergi Adı: Frontiers in Surgery
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
- Anahtar Kelimeler: otosclerosis, readability, comprehensiveness, online sources, patient education
- Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
- Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Purpose: This study aimed to assess the readability indices of websites including educational materials on otosclerosis. Methods: We performed a Google search on 19 April 2023 using the term “otosclerosis.” The first 50 hits were collected and analyzed. The websites were categorized into two groups: websites for health professionals and general websites for patients. Readability indices were calculated using the website https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/. Results: A total of 33 websites were eligible and analyzed (20 health professional-oriented and 13 patient-oriented websites). When patient-oriented websites and health professional-oriented websites were individually analyzed, mean Flesch Reading Ease scores were found to be 52.16 ± 14.34 and 46.62 ± 10.07, respectively. There was no significant difference between the two groups upon statistical analysis. Conclusion: Current patient educational material available online related to otosclerosis is written beyond the recommended sixth-grade reading level. The quality of good websites is worthless to the patients if they cannot comprehend the text.