TY - JOUR
T1 - Critical analysis of the quality of internet resources for patients with varicose veins
AU - Yan, Qi
AU - Field, Alyssa R.
AU - Jensen, Katherine J.
AU - Goei, Christian
AU - Jiang, Zheng
AU - Davies, Mark G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The editors and reviewers of this article have no relevant financial relationships to disclose per the Journal policy that requires reviewers to decline review of any manuscript for which they may have a conflict of interest.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Objective: Patients increasingly seek information on their medical conditions from the internet. The present study evaluated the quality and readability of readily available online patient resources for varicose veins. Methods: An internet search for “varicose veins” was conducted using the meta-search engines Yippy and Dogpile and the general search engines Google, Yahoo, and Bing with a cleared-cache web browser in July 2019. Two trained raters scored the websites separately on the dimensions of accessibility, accountability, interactivity, structure, and content. Any discrepancies were discussed, and a consensus was reached. Readability was calculated using four readability metric systems. Rater consistency was evaluated using kappa, weighted kappa, and interrater correlation coefficient, as indicated. Results: A total of 189 websites met the inclusion criteria. The total median quality score was 15.6 (interquartile range [IQR], 13.1-20.5; range, 7.4-31.3) of 38. The websites scored a median of 4 (IQR, 1-8) of 15 for accountability, 2 (IQR, 2-2) of 5 for interactivity, 4 (IQR, 2-4) of 4 for organization, and 6.4 (IQR, 3.9-7.9) of 14 for weighted content. Most websites (81.5%) were accessible. However, the overall readability was poor. The median Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score was 55.1 (IQR, 49.4-6.7), indicating that the text was fairly difficult to read. The median grade level was 10th grade using both the Flesch-Kincaid grade level and simple measure of the Gobbledygook index and 11th to 12th grade using the new Dale-Chall readability formula. Government websites were the most accountable, featured the best content, and were the most readable. The website traffic had a positive, nonlinear correlation with the total score and a negative, nonlinear correlation with the website rank (or position on the search result page). Website rank correlated negatively with the total score, although the correlation was weak. Conclusions: The quality of the online patient resources on varicose veins varies greatly, and the readability for most sites is poor. Government-sponsored websites had the highest quality and were the most readable. Physicians are advised to consider providing a list of appropriate websites to their patients to better inform them, avoid confusion, and ensure appropriate delivery of accurate and readable information.
AB - Objective: Patients increasingly seek information on their medical conditions from the internet. The present study evaluated the quality and readability of readily available online patient resources for varicose veins. Methods: An internet search for “varicose veins” was conducted using the meta-search engines Yippy and Dogpile and the general search engines Google, Yahoo, and Bing with a cleared-cache web browser in July 2019. Two trained raters scored the websites separately on the dimensions of accessibility, accountability, interactivity, structure, and content. Any discrepancies were discussed, and a consensus was reached. Readability was calculated using four readability metric systems. Rater consistency was evaluated using kappa, weighted kappa, and interrater correlation coefficient, as indicated. Results: A total of 189 websites met the inclusion criteria. The total median quality score was 15.6 (interquartile range [IQR], 13.1-20.5; range, 7.4-31.3) of 38. The websites scored a median of 4 (IQR, 1-8) of 15 for accountability, 2 (IQR, 2-2) of 5 for interactivity, 4 (IQR, 2-4) of 4 for organization, and 6.4 (IQR, 3.9-7.9) of 14 for weighted content. Most websites (81.5%) were accessible. However, the overall readability was poor. The median Flesch-Kincaid reading ease score was 55.1 (IQR, 49.4-6.7), indicating that the text was fairly difficult to read. The median grade level was 10th grade using both the Flesch-Kincaid grade level and simple measure of the Gobbledygook index and 11th to 12th grade using the new Dale-Chall readability formula. Government websites were the most accountable, featured the best content, and were the most readable. The website traffic had a positive, nonlinear correlation with the total score and a negative, nonlinear correlation with the website rank (or position on the search result page). Website rank correlated negatively with the total score, although the correlation was weak. Conclusions: The quality of the online patient resources on varicose veins varies greatly, and the readability for most sites is poor. Government-sponsored websites had the highest quality and were the most readable. Physicians are advised to consider providing a list of appropriate websites to their patients to better inform them, avoid confusion, and ensure appropriate delivery of accurate and readable information.
KW - Internet web resources
KW - Patient information
KW - Varicose veins
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099245222&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85099245222&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jvsv.2020.12.072
DO - 10.1016/j.jvsv.2020.12.072
M3 - Article
C2 - 33340728
AN - SCOPUS:85099245222
JO - Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders
JF - Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders
SN - 2213-333X
ER -