Quality, Reliability, and Readability of Peripheral Nerve Intervention Websites for Patients

This study aims to evaluate the readability, quality, and reliability of online resources about peripheral nerve surgeries to determine if they meet recommended literacy standards.

We analyzed a total of 137 peripheral nerve surgery website by performing a Google search using the search terms "nerve transfer," "nerve repair," "nerve graft," "nerve decompression," "neurolysis," "targeted muscle reinnervation," "regenerative peripheral nerve interface," and "vascularized denervated muscle target." The reading level of the website text was assessed using Simple Measures of Gobbledygook, Flesch-Kincaid, and Gunning Fog. Quality was evaluated using the DISCERN Instrument. Reliability was determined using the Journal of American Medical Association Benchmark Criteria.

All the websites exceeded the sixth-grade reading level, with median readability scores corresponding to a high school reading level or above. Conceptually harder peripheral nerve surgeries such as targeted muscle reinnervation and regenerative peripheral nerve interface websites were generally written at a significantly higher reading level than conceptually easier surgeries such as nerve repair and nerve graft. The median quality of the websites was rated as poor, and the median reliability of the websites was rated as low.

The findings indicate that the current peripheral nerve surgery websites texts do not adhere to recommended reading levels and are constructed with poor quality and low reliability. This potentially hinders patients understanding and utilization of peripheral nerve surgeries, suggesting a need for standardized guidelines to enhance the accessibility of medical information online.