A Critical Assessment of the Readability and Ethnic Inclusivity of Online Patient Materials for Microtia

Abstract

Objective

Online patient education resources need to be at an acceptable reading level for public consumption and should capture the diversity of the patient population they are intended for. The purpose of this study was to assess the suitability of online materials for microtia.

Design

Performed cross-sectional survey and inventory of Google search results for “microtia.”

Setting

Performed online internet search.

Patients, Participants

n/a

Interventions

n/a

Main Outcome Measures

The readability of each site was evaluated utilizing 6 different validated readability instruments and their quality was assessed with the JAMA Benchmark criteria. The proportion of sites containing visual patient representations of microtia was noted and the Fitzpatrick scale was employed to assess for diversity of this representation.

Results

From the 99 unique sites identified, 40 were from academic hospitals, 32 were by private hospitals/physicians, 15 were government/non-profit organizations, and 12 were third-party informational sites. Microtia material found online was written at over a 10th grade reading level which is well-above the NIH/AMA recommended 6th grade reading level; third-party informational sites had the highest average JAMA Benchmark scores (2.33 ± 1.30, P < .01). 43.4% of identified microtia sites included some type of microtia illustrations and only 27.3% included representation other than White.

Conclusions

The patient education materials for microtia found on hospital and organization websites exceed the complexity appropriate for general medical information consumption. Efforts should be made to make material more readable for the general public and illustrations should be more representative given the condition's higher prevalence among ethnic minorities.