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Patient-orientated web sites on laryngectomy: is their information readable?

The objective of the study was to determine levels of readability of commonly accessed websites containing patient information on laryngectomy. A Cross-sectional study of Internet websites was designed. The first 20 websites obtained from a Google search of the word "laryngectomy" that contained a patient information section were selected. Primary outcome measures were the Flesch Readability Ease Score (FRE) and Flesch-Kincaid readability grade (FKRG) score; from these data UK reading age was calculated. The secondary outcome measure was whether or not a site was accredited by an online readability organisation. The reading ages of the 20 sites ranged from 7.8 to 14.7 years with a median of 11.7 years. Half of the Flesch Reading Ease scores were in the "Difficult" or "Fairly difficult" category with 30% falling into the "Standard" or "Fairly easy" categories. Only 20% sites fell into the "Easy" or "Very Easy" categories that are the recommended level for comprehension by the general UK population. Sites not accredited by an online healthcare quality and content control organisation had worse readability scores than those that were not (FRE: p = 0.007, FKRG: p = 0.012). The poor readability of many of the encountered sites about laryngectomy on the Internet may confuse patients who turn to the Internet for information. Methods to improve patient information websites are discussed.