Dental Public Health Division, Preventative Dentistry Department, College of Dentistry, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.
BMC Oral Health. 2023 Oct 25;23(1):797. doi: 10.1186/s12903-023-03547-1.
Web-based information on dental caries in Arabic remains poorly understood. This study aimed to assess the quality and readability of web-based information about dental caries in Arabic.
The first 100 websites in Arabic about dental caries were retrieved from Google and Bing using common terms. The websites were classified and evaluated for quality based on the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria, the DISCERN tool, and the presence of the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode). Readability was assessed using online readability indexes.
A total of 102 Arabic websites were included. The JAMA benchmark score was low (m = 0.36, SD = 0.56), with 67.7% failing to meet any of the JAMA criteria. The DISCERN total score mean was 37.68 (SD = 7.99), with a majority (67.65%) of moderate quality. None of the websites had the HONcode. Readability was generally good, with 52.94% of websites having a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) < 7, 91.18% having a Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) < 7, and 85.29% having a Flesch reading ease (FRE) score ≥ 80. There was a positive correlation between JAMA and DISCERN scores (p < 0.001). DISCERN scores were positively correlated with the number of words (p < 0.001) and sentences (p = 0.004) on the websites. However, JAMA or DISCERN scores were not correlated with FKGL, SMOG, or FRE scores (p > 0.05).
The quality of Arabic dental caries websites was found to be low, despite their readability. Efforts are needed to introduce more reliable sources for discussing dental caries and treatment options on sites aimed at Arabic populations.
阿拉伯文的牙科龋齿网络信息仍知之甚少。本研究旨在评估阿拉伯文牙科龋齿网络信息的质量和可读性。
使用常见术语从谷歌和必应搜索引擎中检索到前 100 个关于牙科龋齿的阿拉伯文网站。根据美国医学会杂志（JAMA）基准标准、DISCERN 工具以及健康网络基金会行为准则（HONcode）对网站进行分类和评估。使用在线可读性指标评估可读性。
共纳入 102 个阿拉伯文网站。JAMA 基准评分较低（m=0.36，SD=0.56），67.7%的网站未满足任何 JAMA 标准。DISCERN 总分平均值为 37.68（SD=7.99），其中大多数（67.65%）为中等质量。没有一个网站有 HONcode。可读性通常较好，52.94%的网站弗莱什-金凯德年级水平（FKGL）<7，91.18%的网站简单测谬法（SMOG）<7，85.29%的网站弗莱什阅读舒适度（FRE）得分≥80。JAMA 和 DISCERN 评分之间存在正相关（p<0.001）。DISCERN 评分与网站上的单词数（p<0.001）和句子数（p=0.004）呈正相关。然而，JAMA 或 DISCERN 评分与 FKGL、SMOG 或 FRE 评分无关（p>0.05）。
尽管阿拉伯文牙科龋齿网站的可读性较高，但这些网站的质量仍然较低。需要努力在针对阿拉伯语人群的网站上引入更可靠的资源，以讨论龋齿和治疗选择。
