AB057. SOH24AB_015. An evaluation of the content quality, readability, and reliability of publicly available web-based information on pneumothorax surgery in Ireland
General Surgery Session I

AB057. SOH24AB_015. An evaluation of the content quality, readability, and reliability of publicly available web-based information on pneumothorax surgery in Ireland

Martin Ho, Samin Abrar, Patrick Higgins, Kishore Doddakula

School of Medicine, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Background: The internet is often a first port-of-call for patients exploring treatment options for pneumothoraces. It is important that websites are of good quality, accurate and reliable so as to confer patients the ability to make informed health decisions. No study has evaluated online information regarding pneumothorax surgery. We aim to evaluate the content, readability, and reliability of online information regarding pneumothorax surgery.

Methods: Altogether, 11 search terms including ‘Pneumothorax Surgery’, ‘Pleurectomy’, and ‘Pleurodesis’ were each entered into Google, Bing, and Yahoo. The top 20 websites found through each search were assessed for inclusion. The Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) and DISCERN benchmark criteria were applied to evaluate website reliability. To evaluate readability, 10 standardised tools including the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease Score were utilised. To evaluate website content, a novel, 10-part questionnaire was designed.

Results: In total, 79 websites were analysed. The mean JAMA score was 1.69±1.29 out of 4. The median readability score was 13.42 [interquartile range (IQR), 11.48–16.23] which corresponded to a 13th–14th school grade standard. Only four websites were written at a 6th-grade reading level. The mean number of content criteria met was 7±2.18 out of 10. Over 30% of websites did not mention any side effects of pneumothorax surgery, while 38% did not mention alternative treatment options.

Conclusions: Most websites were written above the 6th-grade reading level recommended by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Furthermore, many websites excluded essential information regarding pneumothorax surgery. These findings emphasise the need to create and disseminate comprehensive, reliable websites on pneumothorax surgery.

Keywords: Pleurectomy; pneumothorax; readability; reliability; web-based information

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/map-24-ab057
Cite this abstract as: Ho M, Abrar S, Higgins P, Doddakula K. AB057. SOH24AB_015. An evaluation of the content quality, readability, and reliability of publicly available web-based information on pneumothorax surgery in Ireland. Mesentery Peritoneum 2024;8:AB057.

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