Department of Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Surgery, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, NJ, USA.
Surgeon. 2023 Aug;21(4):e195-e200. doi: 10.1016/j.surge.2022.12.002. Epub 2022 Dec 30.
Patients increasingly access online materials for health-related information. Using validated assessment tools, we aim to assess the quality and readability of online information for patients considering incisional hernia (IH) repair.
The top three online search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) were searched in July 2022 for "Incisional hernia repair" and "Surgical hernia repair". Included websites were classified as academic, hospital-affiliated, commercial, and unspecified. The quality of information was assessed using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria (0-4), DISCERN instrument (16-80), and the presence of Health On the Net code (HONcode) certification. Readability was assessed using the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) tests.
25 unique websites were included. The average JAMA and DISCERN scores of all websites were 0.68 ± 1.02 and 36.50 ± 10.91, respectively. Commercial sites showed a significantly higher DISCERN mean score than academic sites (p = 0.034), while no significant difference was demonstrated between other website categories. 3 (12%) websites reported HONcode certification and had significantly higher JAMA (p = 0.016) and DISCERN (p = 0.045) mean scores than sites without certification. Average FRE and FKGL scores were 39.84 ± 13.11 and 10.62 ± 1.76, respectively, corresponding to college- and high school-level comprehensibility.
Our findings suggest online patient resources on IH repair are of poor overall quality and may not be comprehensible to the public. Patients accessing internet resources for additional information on IH repair should be made aware of these inadequacies and directed to sites bearing HONcode certification.
患者越来越多地通过在线材料获取与健康相关的信息。我们使用经过验证的评估工具，旨在评估考虑切口疝（IH）修复的患者在线信息的质量和可读性。
2022 年 7 月，在三大在线搜索引擎（Google、Bing、Yahoo）上搜索“切口疝修复”和“手术疝修复”。将包含的网站分为学术、医院附属、商业和未指定类别。使用《美国医学会杂志》（JAMA）基准标准（0-4 分）、DISCERN 工具（16-80 分）和健康互联网代码（HONcode）认证来评估信息质量。使用 Flesch 阅读舒适度（FRE）和 Flesch-Kincaid 年级水平（FKGL）测试来评估可读性。
共纳入 25 个独特的网站。所有网站的 JAMA 和 DISCERN 平均得分分别为 0.68 ± 1.02 和 36.50 ± 10.91。商业网站的 DISCERN 平均得分明显高于学术网站（p = 0.034），而其他网站类别之间没有显著差异。有 3 个（12%）网站报告了 HONcode 认证，其 JAMA（p = 0.016）和 DISCERN（p = 0.045）平均得分明显高于未认证的网站。平均 FRE 和 FKGL 得分为 39.84 ± 13.11 和 10.62 ± 1.76，分别对应于大学和高中水平的理解能力。
我们的研究结果表明，关于 IH 修复的在线患者资源整体质量较差，可能不容易被公众理解。对于希望通过互联网资源获取 IH 修复相关信息的患者，应让他们了解这些不足，并引导他们访问具有 HONcode 认证的网站。
