Which Resources Are Better: Sales or Scholarly? An Assessment on the Readability, Quality, and Technical Features of Online Chemical Peel Websites

Abstract Background Chemical peels are an exceedingly popular cosmetic treatment with a wide variety of suppliers, each with their own online health resource describing the procedure. With increasing reliance on the internet for medical information, it is crucial these resources provide reliable information for patients to make informed decisions. Objectives The aim of this study was to examine popular chemical peel resources and determine if those that offered chemical peel treatments (Sales) had lower readability, quality of information, and technical features compared to those that did not (Scholarly). Methods The term “chemical peel” was searched on July 2020 and the top 50 websites were retrieved for analysis. Each resource’s readability, quality, and technical features were measured through eight readability formulas, the DISCERN and Health on the Net Code (HONcode), and two website performance monitors. Results The 50 websites were analyzed with an average Fry readability score of 13th grade. Scholarly websites displayed higher readability than Sales (Flesch Reading Ease 54.4 > 47.4, P = 0.047 and Coleman-Liau Index 10.6 < 11.7, P = 0.04). Scholarly resources surpassed Sales both in quality (DISCERN 56.4 > 39.7, P < 0.001 and HONcode 11.8 > 9.5, P = 0.032) and technical features (WooRank 76.9 > 68.6, P = 0.0082). Conclusions The average readability of chemical peel resources is too difficult, and their quality must be improved. Scholarly resources exhibited higher readability, quality, and technical features than Sales websites.

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Quality of information available on the World Wide Web for patients undergoing thyroidectomy: review

The Journal of Laryngology & Otology ◽

10.1017/s0022215111002246 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 126 (2) ◽

pp. 116-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

S Muthukumarasamy ◽

Z Osmani ◽

A Sharpe ◽

R J A England

Keyword(s):

World Wide Web ◽

World Wide ◽

Medical Information ◽

Quality Of Information ◽

Internet Health Information ◽

Flesch Reading Ease ◽

Key Word ◽

The World ◽

Ease Score

AbstractIntroduction:This study aimed to assess the quality of information available on the World Wide Web for patients undergoing thyroidectomy.Methods:The first 50 web-links generated by internet searches using the five most popular search engines and the key word ‘thyroidectomy’ were evaluated using the Lida website validation instrument (assessing accessibility, usability and reliability) and the Flesch Reading Ease Score.Results:We evaluated 103 of a possible 250 websites. Mean scores (ranges) were: Lida accessibility, 48/63 (27–59); Lida usability, 36/54 (21–50); Lida reliability, 21/51 (4–38); and Flesch Reading Ease, 43.9 (2.6–77.6).Conclusion:The quality of internet health information regarding thyroidectomy is variable. High ranking and popularity are not good indicators of website quality. Overall, none of the websites assessed achieved high Lida scores. In order to prevent the dissemination of inaccurate or commercially motivated information, we recommend independent labelling of medical information available on the World Wide Web.

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Assessment of quality of information available over the internet about vegan diet

Nutrition & Food Science ◽

10.1108/nfs-02-2019-0044 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 49 (6) ◽

pp. 1142-1152 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Olivia Genevieve El Jassar ◽

Isobel Nadia El Jassar ◽

Evangelos I. Kritsotakis

Keyword(s):

Health Information ◽

Poor Quality ◽

Vegan Diet ◽

The Internet ◽

Quality Of Information ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Content Type ◽

Flesch Reading Ease ◽

Written Information

Purpose This paper aims to assess the quality of health information available to patients seeking online advice about the vegan diet. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional sample of patient-oriented websites was selected by searching for “Vegan diet” in the three most popular search engines. The first 50 websites from each search were examined. Quality of information was assessed using the DISCERN instrument, a questionnaire tool designed to judge the quality of written information on treatment choices. Readability was determined with the Flesch Reading Ease score (FRES) and Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL). Relevance to health and disease was assessed by counting the appearances of ten related keywords, generated by searching the query term “Vegan diet” into PubMed and recording the top ten health-related words. Findings Of 150 websites retrieved, 67 (44.7 per cent) met inclusion criteria. Of these, 42 (62.7 per cent) were non-pharmaceutical commercial, 7 (10.4 per cent) institutional, 6 (9.0 per cent) magazines or newspapers, 4 (6.0 per cent) support websites, 4 (6.0 per cent) charitable websites, 2 (3.0 per cent) encyclopedias and 2 (3.0 per cent) personal blogs. The overall DISCERN rating of the websites was fair (mean 41.6 ± 15.4 on an 80-point scale), but nearly half (31/67) of the websites were assessed as having “poor” or “very poor” quality of information. FRES and FKGL readability indices met the recommended standards on average (means 63.3 ± 9.6 and 6.6 ± 1.7, respectively), but did not correlate with high DISCERN ratings. Analysis of variance on DISCERN scores (F(6,60) = 6.536, p < 0.001) and FRES (F(6,60) = 2.733, p = 0.021) yielded significant variation according to website source type. Originality/value Quality standards of health information available on the internet about the vegan diet vary greatly. Patients are at risk of exposure to low quality and potentially misleading information over the internet and should be consulting dietitians or physicians to avoid being misled.

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Quality of Information Regarding Abnormal Uterine Bleeding Available Online (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.27847 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rogéria Andrade Werneck ◽

Agnaldo Lopes da Silva Filho ◽

Edgar Nunes Moraes ◽

Wladmir Cardoso Brandão ◽

Mariana Furtado Meinberg ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Abnormal Uterine Bleeding ◽

Uterine Bleeding ◽

Reliable Information ◽

The Internet ◽

Quality Of Information ◽

News Magazine ◽

Moderate Quality ◽

General Quality ◽

Academic Group

BACKGROUND The Internet and electronic devices with Internet access allow for a greater fluidity of information and speed of communication, especially in the field of health. Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) affects approximately 3 - 30% of women and can negatively impact their health and quality of life. Information regarding AUB that is available on the Internet may not be clear or accurate, rendering it difficult to understand and likely to result in delayed medical evaluation, which subsequently leads to worsening of the AUB. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the quality of the information regarding AUB currently available on the Internet, including information regarding treatments. METHODS The Google Trends website was searched for the most widely used English terms related to AUB. The identified descriptors were searched individually on the Google, Yahoo!, and Bing search engines. The first 10 results of each search were pre-selected and evaluated for inclusion in this study. Selected websites were categorically divided into two groups (news/magazine and academic) and individually analyzed by three experts using the DISCERN quality criteria (reliability, general quality, and quality of information) and the presence or absence of the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode®) seal. RESULTS Of the 168 websites included in this study, 60.1% were allocated to the news/magazine group and 39.9% were allocated to the academic group. Over half of the websites (54.2%) did not have the HONcode® quality seal. Websites in the academic group were more likely to include accurate information regarding AUB with greater reliability than websites in the news/magazine group. There were no statistical differences regarding the general quality of the websites. Most websites were rated as either moderate quality (70.8%) or low quality (28.6%). The HONcode® criterion was found to be a confounding factor of the analyses, as the grouping and quality results of websites without this seal were significantly associated. In addition, websites in the news/magazines group were 6.7 times more likely to provide low quality information than websites in the academic group (odds ratio: 6.7; 95% confidence interval: 2.1 - 21.4). CONCLUSIONS The information regarding AUB that is available on the Internet is of low to moderate quality. Academic websites present more reliable information of greater quality. The presence of the HONcode® seal is considered important to determine the quality of the content of a website, especially for news/magazine websites, and may help Internet users identify websites that contain more reliable information. Algorithms and applications that categorize the quality of information and the reliability of health content may be useful tools that can help patients clarify their symptoms for several conditions including AUB.

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Role of Information Available Over the Internet: What are the Parents of Children Undergoing Tonsillectomy Likely to Find?

Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England ◽

10.1308/003588408x318129 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 90 (7) ◽

pp. 601-605 ◽

Cited By ~ 35

Author(s):

A Roshan ◽

S Agarwal ◽

RJA England

Keyword(s):

Search Engines ◽

The Internet ◽

Quality Of Information ◽

Flesch Reading Ease ◽

Ease Score ◽

Data Source ◽

Internet Searches ◽

Role Of Information

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to assess the quality of information available on the world wide web to parents of children undergoing tonsillectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS The main data source was from internet searches using the five most popular search engines and the keyword ‘tonsillectomy’ with default settings. The first 50 web links in each search were evaluated with the LIDA Instrument (assessing accessibility, usability and reliability criteria). We also assessed the readability of the sites using the Flesch reading ease score (FRES). RESULTS Of the 250 possible links, 113 new links were included the remaining being repetitions, inactive links or restricted access sites. The websites had an average accessibility score of 42/63 (66.7%; range, 26–57), a usability score of 29/54 (53.7%; range, 7–49), and are liability score of 17/51 (33.3%; range, 0–49). The Flesch reading ease score was 43.8 (range, 3–84.4). CONCLUSIONS Health information available on the internet varies greatly. Highly ranked websites on popular search engines may not be the most reliable. Overall, the websites had low scores for reliability, with poor engagability, content production and conflict of interest declaration. Patients should be given previously assessed references on the internet to prevent them being misled by in accurate or commercially motivated information.

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The reliability of the Internet for patient-centred education for surgical procedures

Clinical Ethics ◽

10.1177/1477750920927176 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. 197-203

Author(s):

Ca Slinger ◽

I Smillie

Keyword(s):

Surgical Procedures ◽

Patient Information ◽

Medical Information ◽

Poor Quality ◽

Reading Level ◽

The Internet ◽

Flesch Reading Ease ◽

Written Information ◽

Ease Score

Background There is increasing use of the Internet by patients as an educational tool prior to a surgical procedure. However, the quality of information is highly variable, and it is imperative that as clinicians, we are aware of the information available to ensure that consent is valid and avoid unrealistic expectations. Our aim is to assess the quality of medical information available on the Internet related to common surgical procedures. Methods Analysis of the quality of patient information on 10 websites for six common surgical conditions ( n = 54 following exclusions) was assessed using the DISCERN questionnaire and, for readability, using the Flesch reading ease test. Results There was high variation in the DISCERN score from 1.34 to 4.4 (mean 2.75). Overall, poor quality of patient information is available. Consistent scoring below 55 on Flesch reading ease score suggests a reading level beyond the majority of the patient population. Conclusion The majority of patient-centred health education on the Internet is poor. Therefore, improved verbal and written information during consultation combined with local, national and international websites is important to meet patient’s expectations and avoid issues regarding consent.

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