Amy Kloosterboer|Nicolas A. Yannuzzi|Nimesh A. Patel|Ajay E. Kuriyan|Jayanth Sridhar
Assessment of the Quality, Content, and Readability of Freely Available Online Information for Patients Regarding Diabetic Retinopathy
University of Miami|University of Miami|University of Miami|University of Rochester Medical Center|University of Miami
diabetic retinopathy global leading cause blindness patients increasingly use internet search healthrelated information may affect medical decisionmaking date standard exists across published websitesto assess quality content readability information found online diabetic retinopathythis crosssectional study analyzed 11 medical sites information diabetic retinopathy twentysix questions composed include information relevant patients website independently evaluated 1 vitreoretinal surgeon 2 vitreoretinal fellows readability analyzed using online readability tool jama benchmarks used evaluate quality site data collected december 2018 january 2019 analyzed february 2019a 26question survey jama benchmarks flesch reading ease score fleschkincaid grade level gunning fog index coleman liau index simple measure gobbledygook indexthe mean sd questionnaire score websites 5576 1338 95 ci 47856367 104 possible points difference content quality websites h 25811 p 004 mean sd reading grade websites 1130 179 95 ci 10241236 correlation found content accuracy mean reading grade r 0445 p 17 google rank r 0260 p 43 website achieved full 4 jama benchmarks 1 website achieved 3 4 jama benchmarks correlation found accuracy content website jama benchmarks r 0422 p 20 interobserver reproducibility similar among 3 observers r 087 observers 1 2 r 083 observers 1 3 r 084 observers 2 3 p 001these findings suggest freely available information online diabetic retinopathy varies source generally low quality material presented seems difficult interpret exceeds recommended reading level health information websites reviewed provide sufficient information using grading scheme used support patient making medical decisions