Quality and readability of online penile-cancer information: a Cross-Sectional Web Study

Penile cancer is rare, and patients increasingly rely on the internet for health information. On April 1, 2025, we conducted a cross-sectional evaluation of the quality and readability of the top 100 Google search results; 71 websites were included in the analysis. Overall quality was fair, with a mean DISCERN score of 41.01 ± 13.67, and transparency was limited, with a mean Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark score of 1.69 ± 1.02. Readability was generally suboptimal: the mean Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score was 52.06 ± 12.05 (fairly difficult), and the Gunning Fog Index and Simplified Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) scores (8.48 ± 2.43 and 7.19 ± 2.02, respectively) indicated reading demands above the recommended sixth-grade level. Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's post hoc tests showed significant differences in DISCERN scores across affiliations, with non-profit websites scoring higher than commercial websites. FRE also differed by affiliation (p = 0.016), although post hoc comparisons were not significant, and sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of these findings. Correlation analysis demonstrated a strong association between DISCERN and JAMA scores (r = 0.662; p < 0.001). These findings support improved disclosure of authorship and update dates and simplification of language for patient education.