Assessing the Quality, Comprehensiveness, and Readability of Online Patient Health Resources About Psoriasis in Skin of Color.
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Psoriasis is a chronic infl ammatory skin disease with considerable physical and quality of life burden that aff ects approximately eight million adults in the United States (US). 1 Reported psoriasis prevalence in skin of color (SOC) populations is lower than in White populations, and treatment disparities exist among patients of diff erent races.1,2 Black patients with psoriasis have been found to be less familiar with biologic therapies and are less likely to receive these treatments, compared to White patients.2,3 The level of quality, readability, and comprehensiveness regarding online educational materials focused on SOC patients with psoriasis is unknown.Given that 80 percent of internet users report searching online for health information, 4 our study aimed to evaluate the quality, comprehensiveness, and readability of the top-searched websites for patient information about psoriasis in SOC.An internet search for the terms "skin of color psoriasis" and "skin of color psoriasis treatment" was performed using Google in October 2022.We evaluated the fi rst 50 search results for each search term (Figure 1).Inclusion criteria included reference to psoriasis, reference to SOC, and patients as the primary intended audience.Text was extracted from each website and run through six validated readability assessment tools: Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning-Fog Score, SMOG Index, Coleman-Liau Index, and Automated Readability Index.These indices employ diff erent formulas to analyze variables, such as sentence length, syllables per word, and letters per word.Website quality was assessed using Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Benchmark criteria and the DISCERN Instrument.For the DISCERN score, two reviewers independently graded webpages.Scores within one point were averaged; discrepancies greater than two points were discussed to consensus.Our analysis included a total of 19 websites.The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends patient reading materials be written at a sixth-grade reading level or lower.The average grade level for readability across all webpages was the twelfth-grade level (12.0, range: 8.7-14.7).All sources were found to be above the recommended Assessing the Quality, Comprehensiveness, and Readability of Online Patient Health Resources About Psoriasis in Skin of Color
Source: PubMed
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4390069827