University of Medicine and Dentistry-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2009 Dec 1;34(25):2826-31. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181b4bb0c.
Analysis of spine-related websites available to the general public.
To assess the readability of spine-related patient educational materials available on professional society and individual surgeon or practice based websites.
The Internet has become a valuable source of patient education material. A significant percentage of patients, however, find this Internet based information confusing. Healthcare experts recommend that the readability of patient education material be less than the sixth grade level. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level is the most widely used method to evaluate the readability score of textual material, with lower scores suggesting easier readability.
We conducted an Internet search of all patient education documents on the North American Spine Society (NASS), American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), and a sample of 10 individual surgeon or practice based websites. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level of each article was calculated using widely available Microsoft Office Word software. The mean grade level of articles on the various professional society and individual/practice based websites were compared.
A total of 121 articles from the various websites were available and analyzed. All 4 categories of websites had mean Flesch-Kincaid grade levels greater than 10. Only 3 articles (2.5%) were found to be at or below the sixth grade level, the recommended readability level for adult patients in the United States. There were no significant differences among the mean Flesch-Kincaid grade levels from the AAOS, NASS, AANS, and practice-based web-sites (P = 0.065, ANOVA).
Our findings suggest that most of the Spine-related patient education materials on professional society and practice-based websites have readability scores that may be too high, making comprehension difficult for a substantial portion of the United States adult population.
对公众可获得的与脊柱相关的网站进行分析。
评估专业学会和个体外科医生或实践网站上提供的脊柱相关患者教育材料的可读性。
互联网已成为患者教育材料的宝贵资源。然而，相当一部分患者发现基于互联网的信息令人困惑。医疗保健专家建议，患者教育材料的可读性应低于六年级水平。Flesch-Kincaid 阅读水平是评估文本材料可读性得分最常用的方法，较低的分数表示更易读。
我们对北美脊柱学会（NASS）、美国神经外科学会（AANS）、美国矫形外科医师学会（AAOS）以及 10 个个体外科医生或实践网站的所有患者教育文档进行了互联网搜索。使用广泛可用的 Microsoft Office Word 软件计算每个文章的 Flesch-Kincaid 阅读水平。比较了各个专业学会和个体/实践网站的文章平均阅读水平。
从各个网站共获得并分析了 121 篇文章。所有 4 类网站的平均 Flesch-Kincaid 阅读水平均大于 10。只有 3 篇文章（2.5%）处于或低于美国成人患者推荐的 6 年级阅读水平。AAOS、NASS、AANS 和基于实践的网站之间的平均 Flesch-Kincaid 阅读水平无显著差异（P = 0.065，方差分析）。
我们的研究结果表明，专业学会和实践网站上的大多数与脊柱相关的患者教育材料的可读性得分可能过高，使相当一部分美国成年人群难以理解。
