Readability of online material related to skin cancer

The key to reducing mortality from skin cancer depends on early detection and treatment, which, in many cases, means a patient should be informed and possess the self-efficacy necessary to seek expert opinion. The purpose of this study was to determine the readability of skin cancer materials on the Internet using the commonly used readability tests.

This is a cross-sectional study.

A search was conducted using the key words 'skin cancer.' The first 15 pages of websites that contained English language articles on skin cancer comprised the sample for this study. All English language articles appearing on these websites were analyzed using the Readable.io service to automate popular readability scores. For each article, it was determined if it was generated from a .org, .com, .gov, .net, .edu or other source. Five readability tests were conducted on the materials to determine the ease with which one can read each article.

Of the 102 websites sampled, none received an acceptable score on all five assessments. In fact, more than 90% of the websites sampled received an unacceptable score on any one of the five assessments, and more than 78% of the websites sampled received an unacceptable level on all five assessments. All five readability assessments demonstrated statistically significant results; each P-value obtained from the t-tests was substantially below 0.01 and, hence, below the α = 0.05 threshold. These results indicate that it is unlikely that skin cancer websites are being written at the recommended level. Of the websites sampled, roughly 42% were .com, and slightly more than 36% were .org. Statistical evidence indicated that neither .com nor .org websites are likely to be written at the acceptable level.

Both for-profit and non-profit agencies which aim to provide health information to consumers should be mindful of the readability levels of the materials they disperse.