Lee Jason G, Reissmann Molly E, Parkhomenko Egor, Wang David S
Boston University School of Medicine, Department of Urology, Boston Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.
Urol Pract. 2021 May;8(3):360-366. doi: 10.1097/UPJ.0000000000000213. Epub 2020 Dec 17.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men. It is common for patients to search the Internet before and after urological consultation to better understand their diagnoses. Unfortunately, online health information is largely unregulated and may be difficult for patients to comprehend. This study aims to evaluate the readability and quality of websites describing prostate cancer treatments.
Three search engines were used to search the terms "prostate cancer" and "prostate cancer treatments" to replicate a patient seeking self-education about prostate cancer; 40 websites were identified. After excluding websites with membership fees and publicly editable content, 26 websites were analyzed; 7 were marked as advertisements. Three readability formulas (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook) were used to generate readability scores. The DISCERN standardized questionnaire was used to evaluate website quality.
Compared to readability scores at the American Medical Association recommended seventh grade reading level, mean readability scores for the websites analyzed were significantly higher and translated to the tenth to eleventh grade reading level. The mean DISCERN score for all websites was 47, equating to "Fair" quality. Nonadvertisement websites had significantly higher scores than websites marked as advertisements, with nonadvertisements rated "Good" quality and advertisements rated "Poor" quality.
Most websites about prostate cancer treatment are written at a reading level too advanced for a large proportion of Americans to understand. Some optimally positioned websites are advertisements that contain poor quality information. It is the responsibility of clinicians to guide their patients toward appropriate online resources.
前列腺癌是男性中第二常见的癌症。患者在泌尿外科咨询前后上网搜索以更好地了解自己的诊断情况很常见。不幸的是，在线健康信息大多不受监管，患者可能难以理解。本研究旨在评估描述前列腺癌治疗的网站的可读性和质量。
使用三个搜索引擎搜索“前列腺癌”和“前列腺癌治疗”这两个术语，以模拟一个寻求前列腺癌自我教育的患者；共识别出40个网站。在排除需要会员费和有可公开编辑内容的网站后，对26个网站进行了分析；其中7个被标记为广告。使用三种可读性公式（弗莱什-金凯德年级水平、弗莱什-金凯德阅读简易度、简明语言衡量标准）来生成可读性分数。使用DISCERN标准化问卷来评估网站质量。
与美国医学协会推荐的七年级阅读水平的可读性分数相比，所分析网站的平均可读性分数显著更高，相当于十到十一年级的阅读水平。所有网站的平均DISCERN分数为47，相当于“一般”质量。非广告网站的分数显著高于标记为广告的网站，非广告网站被评为“良好”质量，广告网站被评为“较差”质量。
大多数关于前列腺癌治疗的网站的写作水平对于很大一部分美国人来说过于高深，难以理解。一些位置最佳的网站是包含低质量信息的广告。临床医生有责任引导患者获取合适的在线资源。
