Primary Submission Category: Chronic disease
Readability of Online Information on Cardiometabolic Diseases: Implications of Health Literacy
Authors: Osayande Agbonlahor, McKing Amedari, Haley James,
Presenting Author: Jaydon Michalczyk*
Significance: Low health literacy has been shown to be associated with adverse health outcomes including cardiometabolic diseases (CMD). The internet is increasingly popular for accessing health information, however, limited data on the readability of online information on CMD exists. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the readability of online information on CMD.
Methods: We conducted a search of webpages using the following search terms: “hypertension,” “heart attack,” “stroke,” “diabetes,” “obesity,” “chronic kidney disease,” “nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” and “metabolic syndrome”. The first 20 webpages for each search term were recorded and coded for CMD outcome (i.e., hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, or metabolic syndrome), and webpage source type (i.e., governmental organizations, advocacy/non-governmental, educational/scientific, digital media, or academic journals) by two coders. The readability level of the 205 webpages identified was evaluated using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level measure. ANOVA was used to compare the mean readability scores by webpage source type and CMD outcome.
Results: On average, the readability level of online webpages identified was at an 8th grade reading level (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level M = 8.45, SD = 2.56), and only 28.7% of webpages met the American Medical Association’s readability guidelines (i.e., < 6th grade reading level). Differences in readability by source (p=<0.001) and CMD outcomes (p=<0.001) were found, with online CMD information by digital media having higher readability scores than governmental organizations (M=8.41 vs 7.65) and readability of information on hypertension harder to read than obesity (M=10.49 vs 7.40).
Conclusions: Majority of online information on CMD is not written at a grade level that can be easily read and comprehended by the public. Digital media, educational and health care organizations should evaluate the readability of their online information to ensure it is accessible to everyone and can aid informed decisions.