Department of Maxillofacial Surgery and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Dentistry, Jazan University, Jazan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Department of Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology, Faculty of Dentistry, Sana'a University, Sana'a, Yemen.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Jan 18;21(1):151. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10218-9.
This study sought to assess the quality and readability of web-based Arabic health information on COVID-19.
Three search engines were searched on 13 April 2020 for specific Arabic terms on COVID-19. The first 100 consecutive websites from each engine were analyzed for eligibility, which resulted in a sample of 36 websites. These websites were subjected to quality assessments using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks tool, the DISCERN tool, and Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode) certification. The readability of the websites was assessed using an online readability calculator.
Among the 36 eligible websites, only one (2.7%) was HONcode certified. No website attained a high score based on the criteria of the DISCERN tool; the mean score of all websites was 31.5 ± 12.55. As regards the JAMA benchmarks results, a mean score of 2.08 ± 1.05 was achieved by the websites; however, only four (11.1%) met all the JAMA criteria. The average grade levels for readability were 7.2 ± 7.5, 3.3 ± 0.6 and 93.5 ± 19.4 for the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, and Flesch Reading Ease scales, respectively.
Almost all of the most easily accessible web-based Arabic health information on COVID-19 does not meet recognized quality standards regardless of the level of readability and ability to be understood by the general population of Arabic speakers.
本研究旨在评估 COVID-19 阿拉伯文在线健康信息的质量和可读性。
2020 年 4 月 13 日，通过三个搜索引擎以特定的阿拉伯文术语搜索 COVID-19。从每个引擎中分析前 100 个连续的网站以确定其是否符合入选标准，最终纳入了 36 个网站。使用《美国医学会杂志》（JAMA）基准工具、DISCERN 工具和健康网络基金会行为准则（HONcode）认证对这些网站进行质量评估。使用在线可读性计算器评估网站的可读性。
在 36 个合格的网站中，只有一个（2.7%）通过了 HONcode 认证。没有一个网站在 DISCERN 工具的标准下获得高分；所有网站的平均得分为 31.5±12.55。至于 JAMA 基准测试结果，网站平均得分为 2.08±1.05；然而，只有四个（11.1%）符合所有 JAMA 标准。可读性的平均年级水平分别为 Flesch Kincaid 年级水平的 7.2±7.5、简单的文字难度等级的 3.3±0.6 和 Flesch 阅读舒适度的 93.5±19.4。
无论可读性和阿拉伯语母语人群的理解能力如何，大多数最容易获得的 COVID-19 阿拉伯文在线健康信息都不符合公认的质量标准。
