JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Three main changes were implemented into the Australian National Cervical Screening Program in December 2017. The internet is a readily accessible source of information to explain the reasons for these changes to the public. It is important that online health information is accessible and easy for the general population to understand.

Objective:

To evaluate the quality, readability and design of online resources providing information about the changes to the cervical screening program.

Methods:

The term ‘cervical screening’ was searched in three search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing). The first ten relevant results across the first three pages of each search engine were selected. Two authors independently evaluated each website for: Readability (Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch Kincaid Grade Level, ‘Simple Measure of Gobbledygook’ (SMOG) Index); Quality of information (Patient Education Material Evaluation Tool for Print Materials (PEMAT)); Credibility (JAMA benchmark criteria, presence of Health on the Net code (HONcode) certification); website design; and five simulation questions to assess the relevance of information.

Results:

Of the 49 websites identified in the search, 15 were eligible for inclusion. The mean Flesch Reading Ease score was 49.18 (SD=11.78), with the highest being 70.4 (Cancer Screening) and the lowest being 32.97 (Cancer Council Wiki). 13/15 websites met the recommended threshold for readability. The mean PEMAT scores were 79% (SD=13.51) for understandability and 51% (SD=18.2) for actionability. Of the 15 websites, 10 scored above 70% for understandability, but only two had an actionability score above 70%. Three websites met all four JAMA Benchmark criteria and two websites displayed the HONcode. All websites were consistently designed to use white space and appropriate font and text size, with adaptable font size available in 2/15 websites. Three websites provided answers to all five simulation questions: Cancer Screening, Cancer Council Cervical Screening, and Cancer NSW.

Conclusions:

It is important that women have access to reliable information in order to better understand the changes to the cervical screening program. These findings can help healthcare providers direct their patients towards websites that provide information on cervical screening that is written at accessible reading levels and has high understandability.