Hao Li, Zihan Yang
The impact of digital literacy on personal health: Evidence from the China family panel study
The International journal of health planning and management
chat generative pretrained transformer chatgpt potential significantly impact patients acquire medical information online characterize readability appropriateness chatgpt responses range patient questions compared results traditional web searches patient questions related published clinical practice guidelines american academy otolaryngologyhead neck surgery sourced existing online posts questions categorized using modified rothwell classification system 1 fact 2 policy 3 diagnosis recommendations queried using chatgpt traditional web search results evaluated readability flesch reading ease fleschkinkaid grade level understandability patient education materials assessment tool accuracy assessed two blinded clinical evaluators using threepoint ordinal scale 54 questions organized fact 370 policy 370 diagnosis 258 average readability chatgpt responses lower traditional web search fre 423 131 vs 556 105 p 0001 pemat understandability equivalent 938 vs 935 p 017 chatgpt scored higher web search questions diagnosis category p 001 difference questions categorized fact p 015 policy p 022 additional prompting improved chatgpt response readability fre 556 136 p 001 chatgpt outperforms web search answering patient questions related symptombased diagnoses equivalent providing medical facts established policy appropriate prompting improve readability maintaining accuracy patient education needed relay benefits limitations technology source medial information