Online Kidney Stone Educational Materials Do Not Meet Recommended Readability Standards

The prevalence of kidney stones is rising and there is an increasing demand for reliable, easy to understand information for patients. To evaluate the readability of common Internet-based resources for kidney stones, we examined whether the most popular online educational materials may be contributing to decreased health literacy for this chronic condition.

Websites for readability analysis were chosen based on a Google.com search using the search term "kidney stones." The top 10 websites were chosen for analysis and their quality was assessed by the presence or absence of a HONcode certificate. Readability was determined using 6 readability assessment tools: Flesch Reading Ease, FORCAST, Fry, Gunning Fog, Raygor Estimate and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook. Each website was then analyzed by subsections, with emphasis on the treatment and prevention of kidney stones.

Of the 10 websites analyzed 8 had HONcode certification. Grade level calculations ranged from 7-13.9. All 10 websites were found to have readability levels above the recommended sixth-grade reading level. Mean Flesch Reading Ease score was 59 (range 47-73). With respect to treatment and prevention sections, 6/10 and 5/10 websites had readability levels above a tenth-grade level, respectively.

The most commonly accessed websites regarding kidney stones have readability scores above what is comprehensible to the general public, with most exceeding grade level recommendations from the American Medical Association. Websites pertaining to kidney stones need to be simplified to facilitate patient understanding, especially with respect to the treatment and prevention of kidney stones.