Evaluating the Quality of Online Health Information about Prostate Cancer Treatment

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men. It is common for patients to search the Internet before and after urological consultation to better understand their diagnoses. Unfortunately, online health information is largely unregulated and may be difficult for patients to comprehend. This study aims to evaluate the readability and quality of websites describing prostate cancer treatments.

Three search engines were used to search the terms "prostate cancer" and "prostate cancer treatments" to replicate a patient seeking self-education about prostate cancer; 40 websites were identified. After excluding websites with membership fees and publicly editable content, 26 websites were analyzed; 7 were marked as advertisements. Three readability formulas (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) were used to generate readability scores. The DISCERN standardized questionnaire was used to evaluate website quality.

Compared to readability scores at the American Medical Association recommended seventh grade reading level, mean readability scores for the websites analyzed were significantly higher and translated to the tenth to eleventh grade reading level. The mean DISCERN score for all websites was 47, equating to "Fair" quality. Nonadvertisement websites had significantly higher scores than websites marked as advertisements, with nonadvertisements rated "Good" quality and advertisements rated "Poor" quality.

Most websites about prostate cancer treatment are written at a reading level too advanced for a large proportion of Americans to understand. Some optimally positioned websites are advertisements that contain poor quality information. It is the responsibility of clinicians to guide their patients toward appropriate online resources.