Accepted for/Published in: Interactive Journal of Medical Research
Date Submitted: Nov 19, 2018
Date Accepted: Jun 12, 2019
An Analysis of the Quality and Readability of Online Information For Osteoarthritis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Osteoarthritis is the most common cause of disability in people over 65 years old. A 2003 study found the quality of online osteoarthritis information to be poor.
Objective:
This study reviews the quality online information regarding osteoarthritis in 2018. Readability is reviewed for the first time.
Methods:
The term “osteoarthritis” was searched across the three most popular English language search engines. The first 25 pages from each search engine were analyzed. Duplicate pages, websites featuring paid advertisements, inaccessible pages (behind a pay wall, not available for geographical reasons) and non-text pages were excluded. Website quality was scored using the The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria and DISCERN criteria. Presence or absence of HONcode certification, age of content, content producer and author characteristics were noted. Readability was measured using Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and Gunning-Fog Index (GFI).
Results:
37 unique websites were suitable for analysis. One (2.7%) website met all four JAMA Criteria. Mean DISCERN quality of information for OA websites was “fair”, comparing with the “poor” grading of a 2003 study. HONCode endorsed websites (43.2%) were of a statistically significantly higher quality. Readability varied by assessment tool from 8th to 12th grade level. This compares with the recommended 7– 8th grade level.
Conclusions:
Quality of online health information for OA is “fair”. 2.7% of websites met JAMA benchmark criteria for quality. Readability was equal to or more difficult than recommendations. HONcode certification was indicative of higher quality, but not readability.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.