Online educational materials for appendectomy patients have good quality but poor readability

Area of Science:

• Health literacy
• Medical education
• Digital health communication

Background:

• Current guidelines advocate for patient health information to be written at a sixth-grade reading level or below.
• This study investigates the readability and quality of online educational resources concerning appendectomy procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the readability of online appendectomy patient education materials.
• To evaluate the quality of these educational webpages.
• To determine if current materials meet recommended readability standards.

Main Methods:

• Seven readability formulas were employed: Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Gunning Fog Index (GFI), Coleman-Liau Index (CLI), Automated Readability Index (ARI), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), and New Dale-Chall (NDC).
• Two independent evaluators assessed the quality of the webpages using the Brief DISCERN tool.
• A total of 37 webpages were analyzed.

Main Results:

• The mean readability scores indicated that most materials were written above the recommended sixth-grade level (e.g., FKGL = 9.11, GFI = 11.82).
• Six out of seven readability formulas confirmed that the educational content was too complex for the general patient population.
• The average quality score (Brief DISCERN) was 17.81, suggesting good overall quality of the information provided.

Conclusions:

• Online appendectomy patient education materials, while generally of good quality, are written at a reading level higher than recommended.
• There is a critical need for authors to balance information quality with appropriate readability to enhance patient comprehension.
• Improving the readability of online health information is essential for effective patient education and engagement.