Manchaiah Vinaya, Dockens Ashley L, Flagge Ashley, Bellon-Harn Monica, Azios Jamie Hartwell, Kelly-Campbell Rebecca J, Andersson Gerhard
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX.
Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, The Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
J Am Acad Audiol. 2019 Jan;30(1):31-40. doi: 10.3766/jaaa.17070. Epub 2017 Dec 21.
Because of the wealth of information available on the internet and increasing numbers of individuals relying on websites as a primary source of information for health-related questions, it is important that the readability of their content is within the comprehension level of most readers.
The study evaluated the quality and readability of English-language Internet information for tinnitus.
Analysis of Internet websites on tinnitus.
A total of 134 websites with tinnitus information.
Three key words (i.e., tinnitus, ringing in the ear, and buzzing in the ear) were entered in five country-specific versions of the most commonly used internet search engine in August 2016. For each of the 15 searches, the first 20 relevant websites were examined. After removing duplicates, a total of 134 websites were assessed. Their origin (commercial, nonprofit organization, government, personal, or university), quality (Health On the Net [HON] certification and DISCERN scores), and readability (Flesch Reading Ease score, Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level Formula, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) were assessed.
Most websites were of commercial (49.3%) or nonprofit organization (38.8%) origin. Their quality and readability was highly variable. Only 13.5% of websites had HON certification. χ² analysis showed that there was significant association between website origin and HON certification [χ²(4) = 132.9, p < 0.0001]. The mean DISCERN scores were 2.39. No association between DISCERN scores and website origin was found. Readability measures showed that on average, only people with at least 10-12 yr of education could read and understand the internet information for tinnitus in websites. Almost all the websites exceeded the most stringent reading level recommended for health information.
The results highlight great variability in the quality and readability of health information, specifically for tinnitus in the internet. These findings underscores the need for stakeholders (e.g., web-developers, clinicians) to be aware of this and to develop more user-friendly health information on websites to make it more accessible for people with low literacy.
由于互联网上可获取的信息丰富，且越来越多的人将网站作为健康相关问题的主要信息来源，因此其内容的可读性处于大多数读者的理解水平至关重要。
本研究评估了耳鸣相关英文互联网信息的质量和可读性。
对耳鸣相关互联网网站进行分析。
共有134个包含耳鸣信息的网站。
2016年8月，在五个国家特定版本的最常用互联网搜索引擎中输入三个关键词（即耳鸣、耳鸣声、耳内嗡嗡声）。对于15次搜索中的每一次，检查前20个相关网站。去除重复项后，共评估了134个网站。评估了它们的来源（商业、非营利组织、政府、个人或大学）、质量（健康在线[HON]认证和DISCERN评分）以及可读性（弗莱什阅读简易度评分、弗莱什-金凯德阅读年级水平公式和简明语言可读性指数）。
大多数网站的来源是商业（49.3%）或非营利组织（38.8%）。它们的质量和可读性差异很大。只有13.5%的网站有HON认证。χ²分析表明，网站来源与HON认证之间存在显著关联[χ²(4)=132.9，p<0.0001]。DISCERN评分的平均值为2.39。未发现DISCERN评分与网站来源之间存在关联。可读性测量表明，平均而言，只有至少接受过10至12年教育的人才能阅读和理解网站上关于耳鸣的互联网信息。几乎所有网站都超过了健康信息推荐的最严格阅读水平。
结果突出了健康信息，特别是互联网上耳鸣相关信息的质量和可读性存在很大差异。这些发现强调利益相关者（如网站开发者、临床医生）需要意识到这一点，并在网站上开发更便于用户使用的健康信息，以使文化程度低的人更容易获取。
