AB082. SOH23ABS_137. The quality and readability of patient education materials in sarcopenic obesity

Background: Arthroplasty patients with sarcopenic obesity (SO) have a heightened risk for post-operative complications. SO is treated through lifestyle modification. Patients are increasingly guided by online health information. We hypothesized that the readability of these materials would be too difficult for the average patient to comprehend and of poor quality.

Methods: A search of the top 50 results on three search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) was completed (MeSH “sarcopenic obesity”). Readability of these websites was calculated using https://readable.com/, producing three scores: Gunning-Fog (GF), Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), and Flesch-Kincaid Grade (FKG). Quality of the retrieved webpages was analysed using Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria and the Health on the Net (HON) code toolbar extension.

Results: A total of 84 unique websites were identified, 60 of which were primary research articles. The mean scores were: FRE 31.1±13.0, FKG 11.2±2.7, and GF 11.1±4.3. Therefore, most webpages are pitched at a grade 11—undergraduate level. The mean scores excluding the research articles were FRE 28.8±14.8, FKG 11.8±2.5, and GF 12.3±3.2. Therefore, most webpages are pitched at grade 11—postgraduate level. A HON code certificate was displayed by 12 websites (14%). Most websites (n=50, 60%) met all 4 of the JAMA criteria.

Conclusions: The quality of online health materials relating to SO is high; however, they are too difficult for the average patient to understand. As SO is a modifiable condition, appropriately pitched online health information is vital to improve patient outcomes and health literacy.

Keywords: Sarcopenic obesity (SO); patient education; health literacy; reading level; orthopaedic surgery