Lynch Conor P, Cha Elliot D K, Jenkins Nathaniel W, Parrish James M, Mohan Shruthi, Geoghegan Cara E, Jadczak Caroline N, Singh Kern
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Int J Spine Surg. 2021 Oct;15(5):1046-1053. doi: 10.14444/8133. Epub 2021 Oct 14.
As spine surgery in the ambulatory setting becomes more frequent, patients should comprehend the difference from traditional hospital-based, outpatient settings. Limited research exists on the readability of online articles surrounding spine surgery in the ambulatory surgery center (ASC). In this study, we intend to evaluate the readability of online articles pertaining to spine surgery in the outpatient and ambulatory surgical settings.
Three search engines were queried, and the first 100 articles pertaining to each outpatient spine surgery search term were collected. Advertisements, videos, and peer-reviewed scientific articles were excluded. Articles were categorized by publishing source as follows: hospital or institution, general medical Websites, private practice, or surgery center. Flesch-Kincaid (FK) grade level, Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score, word count, sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, and characters per word were evaluated for each article. Student's tests compared readability metrics between groups based on setting and procedure region.
A total of 342 articles was analyzed; 279 articles were outpatient hospital related, and 63 ASC related. Flesch-Kincaid grade levels or FRE scores were not significantly different between outpatient hospital and ambulatory center. Comparison of ASC to outpatient articles from a hospital or institution source significantly differed in FRE score (40.7 versus 32.4) and FK grade level (12.3 versus 13.9; all < .05). Articles addressing procedure type were significantly different in FRE score (36.2 versus 30.0) and FK grade level (13.0 ± 2.1 versus 14.3 ± 1.8).
Hospital, private practice, and medical journalists should be aware of significant differences in readability of patient-accessible ASC articles. These articles may be more difficult to read than outpatient hospital articles, and production of more reading-level-appropriate online literature is required.
3 CLINICAL RELEVANCE: There is a significant difference in the readability of patient-accessible ASC articles.
随着门诊脊柱手术日益频繁，患者应了解其与传统的基于医院的门诊环境的差异。关于门诊手术中心（ASC）中脊柱手术在线文章可读性的研究有限。在本研究中，我们旨在评估门诊和门诊手术环境中与脊柱手术相关的在线文章的可读性。
查询了三个搜索引擎，并收集了与每个门诊脊柱手术搜索词相关的前100篇文章。排除广告、视频和同行评审的科学文章。文章按发布来源分类如下：医院或机构、普通医学网站、私人诊所或手术中心。对每篇文章评估了弗莱什-金凯德（FK）年级水平、弗莱什阅读简易度（FRE）得分、单词数、每段句子数、每句单词数和每个单词的字符数。采用学生t检验比较基于环境和手术区域的组间可读性指标。
共分析了342篇文章；279篇文章与门诊医院相关，63篇与ASC相关。门诊医院和门诊中心之间的弗莱什-金凯德年级水平或FRE得分无显著差异。将ASC文章与来自医院或机构来源的门诊文章进行比较，FRE得分（40.7对32.4）和FK年级水平（12.对13.9；均P<0.05）存在显著差异。涉及手术类型的文章在FRE得分（36.2对30.0）和FK年级水平（13.0±2.1对14.3±1.8）上存在显著差异。
医院、私人诊所和医学记者应意识到患者可获取的ASC文章在可读性方面存在显著差异。这些文章可能比门诊医院文章更难阅读，需要制作更多适合阅读水平的在线文献。
3 临床相关性：患者可获取的ASC文章在可读性方面存在显著差异。
