Ibrahim Ahmed M S, Vargas Christina R, Koolen Pieter G L, Chuang Danielle J, Lin Samuel J, Lee Bernard T
Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Division of Plastic Surgery, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Melanoma Res. 2016 Feb;26(1):58-65. doi: 10.1097/CMR.0000000000000210.
Medical information is often difficult for patients to understand. With specialized vocabulary and complex pathophysiology, even well-educated adults have trouble interpreting information about their healthcare. The average American adult reads at a seventh-grade level. In light of the inherent complexity of health information, the American Medical Association and National Institutes of Health have recommended that information for patients should be written at a sixth-grade level. The goal of this study was to evaluate the most commonly used online patient resources about melanoma in the context of these recommendations. A web search for 'melanoma' identified the 10 most-accessed websites. Location filters were disabled and sponsored results were excluded to avoid inadvertent search bias. All relevant, patient-directed articles were downloaded and formatted into plain text. Pictures, videos, links, advertisements, and references were removed. Readability analysis was carried out using 10 established tests, both overall and arranged by parent website for comparison. A total of 130 articles for melanoma information were identified. The overall mean reading grade level was 12.6. All sites exceeded the recommended sixth-grade level. Secondary analysis of articles grouped by website indicated a range of readability across sites from 9.9 (high school freshman) to 14.9 (university sophomore). Online patient resources for melanoma uniformly exceed the recommended reading level and may be too difficult for many Americans to understand. The range of readability among websites may indicate an opportunity for physicians to direct patients to more appropriate resources for their level of health literacy.
医学信息通常让患者难以理解。由于存在专业词汇和复杂的病理生理学知识，即便受过良好教育的成年人在解读有关自身医疗保健的信息时也会遇到困难。美国成年人的平均阅读水平为七年级。鉴于健康信息本身的复杂性，美国医学协会和美国国立卫生研究院建议，面向患者的信息应以六年级的阅读水平来撰写。本研究的目的是在这些建议的背景下，评估关于黑色素瘤最常用的在线患者资源。通过在网络上搜索“黑色素瘤”，找出了访问量最高的10个网站。禁用了位置过滤器并排除了付费推广结果，以避免意外的搜索偏差。下载了所有相关的、面向患者的文章，并将其格式化为纯文本。去除了图片、视频、链接、广告和参考文献。使用10种既定测试进行可读性分析，包括整体分析以及按所属网站分类进行比较。总共识别出130篇关于黑色素瘤信息的文章。总体平均阅读年级水平为12.6。所有网站均超过了建议的六年级水平。按网站对文章进行的二次分析表明，各网站的可读性范围从9.9（高中一年级）到14.9（大学二年级）不等。黑色素瘤的在线患者资源普遍超过了建议的阅读水平，可能对许多美国人来说太难理解。网站之间的可读性差异可能意味着医生有机会根据患者的健康素养水平，引导他们获取更合适的资源。
