Readability assessment of Spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncology
Objective: Over half of Spanish-speaking patients use the internet to understand their diagnosis. We evaluated readability of Spanish online patient education materials (OPEMs) about gynecologic cancer to assess compliance with National Institute of Health (NIH) recommendations to be at or below eig...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Gynecologic Oncology Reports |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352578924002273 |
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| author | Dionna Thomas Rubina Ratnaparkhi |
| author_facet | Dionna Thomas Rubina Ratnaparkhi |
| author_sort | Dionna Thomas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective: Over half of Spanish-speaking patients use the internet to understand their diagnosis. We evaluated readability of Spanish online patient education materials (OPEMs) about gynecologic cancer to assess compliance with National Institute of Health (NIH) recommendations to be at or below eighth grade reading level. Methods: We conducted an online search using six Spanish gynecologic cancer terms on three major search engines with cookies and location disabled. The first five results by cancer type were included. Readability was analyzed by Spanish Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and Gilliam-Peña-Mountain (GPM) indices. One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) post-hoc analysis was performed. Results: 322 unique OPEMs were retrieved using Spanish queries. This included 132 (41 %) from non-profit organizations, 114 (35.4 %) from governmental organizations, and 63 (19.5 %) from academic medical centers; the remainder were from professional medical society or pharmaceutical company sources. Overall, gynecologic oncology OPEMs were written at a mean 9.8 ± 1.2 grade reading level. Only 14 % of OPEMs were written at or below an eighth grade reading level. There were significant differences in readability by publishing source (p < 0.001). Though there were no significant differences in readability by cancer type (p = 0.07), the mean reading level for all cancer types was between ninth and eleventh grade level. Conclusions: 86% of readily searchable Spanish gynecologic oncology OPEMs are written above recommended reading levels. Gynecologic oncologists should curate and support Spanish-speaking patients in finding high-quality online educational content. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ea31c6cdc7594e13a0cba0a99e2d2b62 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2352-5789 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Gynecologic Oncology Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-ea31c6cdc7594e13a0cba0a99e2d2b622025-08-20T02:39:31ZengElsevierGynecologic Oncology Reports2352-57892024-12-015610154810.1016/j.gore.2024.101548Readability assessment of Spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncologyDionna Thomas0Rubina Ratnaparkhi1University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS, USADivision of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA; Corresponding author at: 3901 Rainbow Blvd, 3015 Wescoe, Mailstop 2028, Kansas City, KS, 66160, USA.Objective: Over half of Spanish-speaking patients use the internet to understand their diagnosis. We evaluated readability of Spanish online patient education materials (OPEMs) about gynecologic cancer to assess compliance with National Institute of Health (NIH) recommendations to be at or below eighth grade reading level. Methods: We conducted an online search using six Spanish gynecologic cancer terms on three major search engines with cookies and location disabled. The first five results by cancer type were included. Readability was analyzed by Spanish Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and Gilliam-Peña-Mountain (GPM) indices. One-way ANOVA with Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference (HSD) post-hoc analysis was performed. Results: 322 unique OPEMs were retrieved using Spanish queries. This included 132 (41 %) from non-profit organizations, 114 (35.4 %) from governmental organizations, and 63 (19.5 %) from academic medical centers; the remainder were from professional medical society or pharmaceutical company sources. Overall, gynecologic oncology OPEMs were written at a mean 9.8 ± 1.2 grade reading level. Only 14 % of OPEMs were written at or below an eighth grade reading level. There were significant differences in readability by publishing source (p < 0.001). Though there were no significant differences in readability by cancer type (p = 0.07), the mean reading level for all cancer types was between ninth and eleventh grade level. Conclusions: 86% of readily searchable Spanish gynecologic oncology OPEMs are written above recommended reading levels. Gynecologic oncologists should curate and support Spanish-speaking patients in finding high-quality online educational content.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352578924002273SpanishReadabilityHealth literacyOnline health resourcesPatient education |
| spellingShingle | Dionna Thomas Rubina Ratnaparkhi Readability assessment of Spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncology Gynecologic Oncology Reports Spanish Readability Health literacy Online health resources Patient education |
| title | Readability assessment of Spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncology |
| title_full | Readability assessment of Spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncology |
| title_fullStr | Readability assessment of Spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Readability assessment of Spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncology |
| title_short | Readability assessment of Spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncology |
| title_sort | readability assessment of spanish online patient education materials in gynecologic oncology |
| topic | Spanish Readability Health literacy Online health resources Patient education |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352578924002273 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dionnathomas readabilityassessmentofspanishonlinepatienteducationmaterialsingynecologiconcology AT rubinaratnaparkhi readabilityassessmentofspanishonlinepatienteducationmaterialsingynecologiconcology |