Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2023 Jul;169(1):143-150. doi: 10.1002/ohn.251. Epub 2023 Jan 30.
Children with sensorineural hearing loss can benefit from cochlear implantation (CI). Patients can obtain direct access to medical information on the internet. However, the internet is uncontrolled, and the quality and readability of information are unpredictable. The quality and readability of websites providing information about CI in children were assessed in this study.
Cross-sectional study.
Online search.
The 3 most popular search engines (Google, Bing, and Yahoo) were queried with the phrases "cochlear implant" and "cochlear implant in children." The DISCERN instrument was used to assess the information quality. The readability was evaluated using 5 validated readability indices.
Of 103 websites, the median DISCERN quality score was 33 (interquartile range [IQR], 27-41). Only 5 websites were considered to be of good quality, and 1 was excellent. The median readability school grade was 11th (IQR, 10-12), which fell within the range defined as difficult. No website was at or below the recommended sixth-grade level. There was no correlation between readability and the DISCERN scores (r = -0.105, p = .291).
Our study suggests that most websites with information on CI for children are of variable quality and are written beyond the reading ability of the general population. Website builders should focus on improving the readability of their online material to help the average reader understand and benefit from the content.
患有感音神经性听力损失的儿童可以从人工耳蜗植入（CI）中受益。患者可以直接在互联网上获取医疗信息。然而，互联网是不受控制的，信息的质量和可读性是不可预测的。本研究评估了提供儿童人工耳蜗植入信息的网站的质量和可读性。
横断面研究。
在线搜索。
用短语“人工耳蜗植入”和“儿童人工耳蜗植入”在 3 个最受欢迎的搜索引擎（谷歌、必应和雅虎）上进行查询。使用 DISCERN 工具评估信息质量。使用 5 种经过验证的可读性指标评估可读性。
在 103 个网站中，DISCERN 质量评分中位数为 33（四分位距[IQR]，27-41）。只有 5 个网站被认为是高质量的，1 个是优秀的。中位数阅读水平为 11 年级（IQR，10-12），属于较难水平。没有一个网站达到或低于建议的 6 年级水平。可读性和 DISCERN 评分之间没有相关性（r=−0.105，p=0.291）。
我们的研究表明，大多数提供儿童人工耳蜗植入信息的网站质量参差不齐，且超出了普通读者的阅读能力。网站建设者应专注于提高其在线材料的可读性，以帮助普通读者理解和受益于内容。
