Rodrigue James R, Feranil Mario, Lang Jenna, Fleishman Aaron
Center for Transplant Outcomes and Quality Improvement, Transplant Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
Departments of Surgery and Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Clin Transplant. 2017 Sep;31(9). doi: 10.1111/ctr.13039. Epub 2017 Jul 18.
More than three-fourths of adults in the USA use the Internet to access health-related information. Adults exploring the possibility of living donation should have access to online content that is readable and comprehensive. We simulated a search of online information about living kidney donation and evaluated readability, topics covered, and racial/ethnic diversity of 21 websites meeting inclusion criteria (eg, hosted by a nonprofit or patient advocacy organization, English content, based in USA). Using standard readability metrics, 62% of sites were classified as "Difficult to read" and none achieved the recommended reading level of sixth grade. On average, websites covered 18.5 (62%) of 30 recommended information topics (range: 7 to 28) and only 2.1 (23%) of 9 racial/ethnic diversity items (range: 0 to 6). Overall, the most common nonprofit or patient advocacy organization websites do not meet the readability standards established by the National Institutes of Health and the American Medical Association, many lack fundamental information about living kidney donation, and most are not racially/ethnically diverse. We encourage the transplant community to consider playing a more active role in improving the overall quality of online information disseminated to the general public. Further, there is a need to more critically examine the accuracy of online living donation content in future investigations.
超过四分之三的美国成年人通过互联网获取与健康相关的信息。探索活体捐赠可能性的成年人应该能够访问可读性强且内容全面的在线内容。我们模拟了一次对有关活体肾捐赠在线信息的搜索，并评估了符合纳入标准的21个网站（例如，由非营利组织或患者权益倡导组织主办、英文内容、美国本土）的可读性、涵盖的主题以及种族/民族多样性。使用标准可读性指标，62%的网站被归类为“难读”，没有一个网站达到推荐的六年级阅读水平。平均而言，网站涵盖了30个推荐信息主题中的18.5个（62%）（范围：7至28个），而在9个种族/民族多样性项目中仅涵盖了2.1个（23%）（范围：0至6个）。总体而言，最常见的非营利组织或患者权益倡导组织网站未达到美国国立卫生研究院和美国医学协会制定的可读性标准，许多网站缺乏关于活体肾捐赠的基本信息，并且大多数网站在种族/民族方面缺乏多样性。我们鼓励移植界在提高向公众传播的在线信息的整体质量方面发挥更积极的作用。此外，在未来的调查中需要更严格地审查在线活体捐赠内容的准确性。
