AUTHOR=Cırık Ahmet Adnan , Yiğit Yeşim Esen , Tekin Ahmet Mahmut , Duymaz Yaşar Kemal , Şahin Şamil , Erkmen Burak , Topsakal Vedat 

TITLE=Comprehensiveness of online sources for patient education on otosclerosis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Surgery

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/surgery/articles/10.3389/fsurg.2024.1327793

DOI=10.3389/fsurg.2024.1327793

ISSN=2296-875X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Purpose</title><p>This study aimed to assess the readability indices of websites including educational materials on otosclerosis.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>We performed a Google search on 19 April 2023 using the term “otosclerosis.” The first 50 hits were collected and analyzed. The websites were categorized into two groups: websites for health professionals and general websites for patients. Readability indices were calculated using the website <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/</ext-link>.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>A total of 33 websites were eligible and analyzed (20 health professional-oriented and 13 patient-oriented websites). When patient-oriented websites and health professional-oriented websites were individually analyzed, mean Flesch Reading Ease scores were found to be 52.16 ± 14.34 and 46.62 ± 10.07, respectively. There was no significant difference between the two groups upon statistical analysis.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Current patient educational material available online related to otosclerosis is written beyond the recommended sixth-grade reading level. The quality of good websites is worthless to the patients if they cannot comprehend the text.</p></sec>