Busigó Torres Rodnell, Restrepo Mejia Mateo, Arroyave Juan Sebastian, Stern Brocha Z, Chen Darwin D, Moucha Calin S, Poeran Jashvant, Hayden Brett L
From the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY (Busigó Torres, Restrepo Mejia, Arroyave, Stern, Chen, Moucha, Poeran, and Hayden) and the Department of Population Health Science and Policy, Institute for Healthcare Delivery Science, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY (Stern and Poeran).
J Am Acad Orthop Surg. 2025 Jun 1;33(11):594-601. doi: 10.5435/JAAOS-D-23-01012. Epub 2024 Oct 1.
Spanish-speaking individuals may experience language-based disparities related to elective orthopaedic procedures. Because patients often seek online health information, we assessed the readability, credibility, and quality of Spanish-language educational websites for knee arthroplasty.
We queried "Google," "Yahoo," and "Bing" using the term "reemplazo de rodilla" (knee replacement in Spanish) and extracted the top 50 websites per search engine. Websites were categorized by information source (physician/community hospital, university/academic, other) and presence of HONcode certification. Information was assessed for readability (Fernández-Huerta formula), credibility (Journal of the American Medical Association benchmark criteria), and quality (Brief DISCERN tool); scores were compared between the categories.
A total of 77 unique websites were included (40.3% physician/community hospital, 35.1% university/academic). The median readability score was 59.4 (10th to 12th-grade reading level); no websites achieved the recommended level of ≤6th grade. The median Journal of the American Medical Association benchmark score was 2 (interquartile range 1 to 3), with only 7.8% of websites meeting all criteria. The median Brief DISCERN score was 16 (interquartile range 12 to 20), with 50.7% meeting the threshold for good quality. University/academic websites had better readability ( P = 0.02) and credibility ( P = 0.002) but similar quality ( P > 0.05) compared with physician/community hospital websites. In addition, HONcode-certified websites had better quality scores ( P = 0.045) but similar readability and credibility ( P > 0.05) compared with noncertified websites.
We identified limitations in readability, credibility, and quality of Spanish-language online educational resources for knee arthroplasty. Healthcare providers should be aware of these patient education barriers when counseling patients, and efforts should be made to support the online information needs of Spanish-speaking orthopaedic patients and mitigate language-based disparities.
说西班牙语的人群在接受选择性骨科手术时可能会面临与语言相关的差异。由于患者经常在网上查找健康信息，我们评估了西班牙语膝关节置换教育网站的可读性、可信度和质量。
我们使用“reemplazo de rodilla”（西班牙语中的膝关节置换）一词在“谷歌”“雅虎”和“必应”上进行查询，并在每个搜索引擎中提取排名前50的网站。网站按信息来源（医生/社区医院、大学/学术机构、其他）和是否拥有健康在线认证（HONcode）进行分类。对信息的可读性（费尔南德斯 - 韦尔塔公式）、可信度（《美国医学会杂志》基准标准）和质量（简要辨别工具）进行评估；比较不同类别之间的得分。
共纳入77个不同的网站（40.3%来自医生/社区医院，35.1%来自大学/学术机构）。可读性得分中位数为59.4（相当于十到十二年级阅读水平）；没有网站达到推荐的六年级及以下水平。《美国医学会杂志》基准得分中位数为2（四分位间距为1至3），只有7.8%的网站符合所有标准。简要辨别得分中位数为16（四分位间距为12至20），50.7%的网站达到高质量阈值。与医生/社区医院网站相比，大学/学术机构网站具有更好的可读性（P = 0.02）和可信度（P = 0.002），但质量相似（P > 0.05）。此外，与未认证网站相比，拥有健康在线认证的网站质量得分更高（P = 0.045），但可读性和可信度相似（P > 0.05）。
我们发现西班牙语膝关节置换在线教育资源在可读性、可信度和质量方面存在局限性。医疗保健提供者在为患者提供咨询时应意识到这些患者教育障碍，并且应该努力满足说西班牙语的骨科患者的在线信息需求，减少基于语言的差异。
