Readability, Quality, and Timeliness of Patient Online Health Resources for Contact Dermatitis and Patch Testing.

BACKGROUND

Contact dermatitis (CD) causes significant impact on patient quality of life. It is the most common occupational skin disease, accounting for more than US $1 billion of medical costs. Patch testing (PT) is the criterion standard for diagnosis of allergic CD. Patients are increasingly using the Internet to obtain health information; however, the readability, quality, and timeliness of online health resources for CD and PT are unknown.

OBJECTIVE

The objective was to determine the readability, quality, and timeliness of the most frequently accessed patient online health resources for CD and PT.

METHODS

A Google search was performed on March 20, 2021, using the terms "contact dermatitis," "contact eczema," "patch testing," and "patch test." Websites were evaluated using several well-validated tools/criteria.

RESULTS

Contact dermatitis and PT websites had only 2 of the 48 websites combined that met the recommended sixth-grade reading level for patients, with the majority characterized as "very poor" to "fair" quality. There was no correlation found between quality and readability of the CD and PT websites.

CONCLUSIONS

There is a need for improvement of online CD and PT health resources. Dermatologists should take the lead to vet websites and enhance online resources to improve patient care.