Ayyaswami Varun, Padmanabhan Divya, Patel Manthan, Prabhu Arpan Vaikunth, Hansberry David R, Agarwal Nitin, Magnani Jared W
University of Maryland School of Medicine.
University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Health Lit Res Pract. 2019 Apr;3(2):e74-e80. doi: 10.3928/24748307-20190306-03. Epub 2019 Apr 10.
Online cardiovascular health materials are easily accessible with an Internet connection, but the readability of its content may limit practical use by patients.
The goal of our study was to assess the readability of the most commonly searched Internet health education materials for cardiovascular diseases accessed via Google.
We selected 20 commonly searched cardiovascular disease terms: aneurysm, angina, atherosclerosis, cardiomyopathy, congenital heart disease, coronary artery disease, deep vein thrombosis, heart attack, heart failure, high blood pressure, pericardial disease, peripheral arterial disease, rheumatic heart disease, stroke, sudden death, valvular heart disease, mini-stroke, lower extremity edema, pulmonary embolism, and exertional dyspnea. Terms were selected on Google and selected up to 10 results in order of presentation in the search results by reviewing a maximum of 15 pages of Google search results specifically providing education toward patients to yield 196 total patient education articles.
All readability measures assessing grade level measures found the 196 articles were written at a mean 10.9 ( = 1.8) grade reading level. Moreover, 99.5% of the articles were written beyond the 5th- to 6th-grade level recommended by the American Medical Association.
Given the prominent use of online patient education material, we consider readability as a quality metric that should be evaluated prior to online publication of any health education materials. Further study of how to improve the readability of online materials may enhance patient education, engagement, and health outcomes.
只需连接互联网，就能轻松获取在线心血管健康资料，但其内容的可读性可能会限制患者的实际使用。
我们研究的目的是评估通过谷歌搜索获取的最常见的心血管疾病互联网健康教育资料的可读性。
我们选取了20个常见的心血管疾病搜索词：动脉瘤、心绞痛、动脉粥样硬化、心肌病、先天性心脏病、冠状动脉疾病、深静脉血栓形成、心脏病发作、心力衰竭、高血压、心包疾病、外周动脉疾病、风湿性心脏病、中风、猝死、心脏瓣膜病、小中风、下肢水肿、肺栓塞和劳力性呼吸困难。在谷歌上选择这些搜索词，并按搜索结果中的呈现顺序选取最多10个结果，通过查看最多15页专门为患者提供教育的谷歌搜索结果，共得到196篇患者教育文章。
所有评估年级水平的可读性指标显示，这196篇文章的平均阅读年级水平为10.9（标准差 = 1.8）。此外，99.5%的文章的写作水平超过了美国医学协会推荐的五至六年级水平。
鉴于在线患者教育资料的广泛使用，我们认为可读性是一个质量指标，在任何健康教育资料在线发布之前都应进行评估。进一步研究如何提高在线资料的可读性可能会增强患者教育、参与度和健康结局。
