Ashley P. O’Connell Ferster|Amanda Hu
Evaluating the Quality and Readability of Internet Information Sources regarding the Treatment of Swallowing Disorders
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center|Drexel University
internet become popular resource patient education information provides however rarely peerreviewed quality may concern since average american reads 8th grade level american medical association national institutes health recommended health information written 4th 6th grade level performed study assess quality readability online information regarding treatment swallowing disorders google search swallowing treatment conducted studied first 50 websites appeared search engines results use discern quality index tool flesch ease reading score fres fleschkincaid grade level fkgl readability test discern validated 16item questionnaire used assess quality written health information fres fkgl used assess readability classified websites either patienttargeted professionaltargeted sites well either major minor overall discern score 161 061 range 1 5 overall fres 391 190 range 1 100 overall fkgl 118 34 range 3 12 would expected patienttargeted websites significantly higher fres significantly lower fkgl scores professionaltargeted websites p 001 p 004 respectively significant difference two discern scores major websites significantly higher discern scores minor sites p 0002 significant differences fres fkgl scores conclude online information sources regarding treatment swallowing disorders suboptimal quality information written level difficult average american easily understand also patienttargeted websites written lower reading level major websites contained higher quality information