TY - JOUR
T1 - Quality appraisal of educational websites about osteoporosis and bone health
AU - Lopez-Olivo, Maria A.
AU - des Bordes, Jude K.A.
AU - Syed, Maha N.
AU - Alemam, Ahmed
AU - Dodeja, Abhinav
AU - Abdel-Wahab, Noha
AU - Suarez-Almazor, Maria E.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by an Institutional Research Grant (# 600701-80-110770-19; Principal Investigator Dr. Lopez-Olivo) from the University Cancer Foundation and the Duncan Family Institute for Cancer Prevention and Risk Assessment via the Cancer Survivorship Research Seed Money Grants at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, International Osteoporosis Foundation and National Osteoporosis Foundation.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Purpose/introduction: Bone health education publicly available through the Internet, if evidence-based and unbiased, could help patients deal with issues such as decision-making, maintaining healthy lifestyles, using medications correctly, and improving their communication with health professionals. Methods: We performed an environmental scan and quality assessment of the currently available osteoporosis and bone health patient education information on the World Wide Web. The sample websites were identified by using three separate search tools: Google Advanced, Bing, and Ask.com. Two independent investigators collected data and appraised the quality of selected websites. Results: We identified 48 websites. Most websites were focused on risks factors of osteoporosis, preventive measures, screening recommendations, and topics to discuss with the physician. All websites provided adequate information describing treatment options; however, only 36% had information addressing duration of treatment, what happens when treatment stops, and the benefits and risks of various treatments. A total of 55% of the websites had their content updated to 2019 and 68% cited their sources of information to support their content. Reading levels ranged from 7.5 to 15.2 (higher than the recommended 6-grade level). Conclusions: Websites with information about bone health and osteoporosis commonly present information about initial treatment choices, but most fail to address risk-benefit issues, and common barriers than can occur throughout the course of the disease. In addition, many websites did not update their content, did not cite their sources of information, or were written at a 9-grade level or above (rendering them unsuitable for low-literacy populations).
AB - Purpose/introduction: Bone health education publicly available through the Internet, if evidence-based and unbiased, could help patients deal with issues such as decision-making, maintaining healthy lifestyles, using medications correctly, and improving their communication with health professionals. Methods: We performed an environmental scan and quality assessment of the currently available osteoporosis and bone health patient education information on the World Wide Web. The sample websites were identified by using three separate search tools: Google Advanced, Bing, and Ask.com. Two independent investigators collected data and appraised the quality of selected websites. Results: We identified 48 websites. Most websites were focused on risks factors of osteoporosis, preventive measures, screening recommendations, and topics to discuss with the physician. All websites provided adequate information describing treatment options; however, only 36% had information addressing duration of treatment, what happens when treatment stops, and the benefits and risks of various treatments. A total of 55% of the websites had their content updated to 2019 and 68% cited their sources of information to support their content. Reading levels ranged from 7.5 to 15.2 (higher than the recommended 6-grade level). Conclusions: Websites with information about bone health and osteoporosis commonly present information about initial treatment choices, but most fail to address risk-benefit issues, and common barriers than can occur throughout the course of the disease. In addition, many websites did not update their content, did not cite their sources of information, or were written at a 9-grade level or above (rendering them unsuitable for low-literacy populations).
KW - Education
KW - Osteoporosis
KW - Patient
KW - Quality reporting
KW - Websites
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101000576&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85101000576&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11657-021-00877-x
DO - 10.1007/s11657-021-00877-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 33566216
AN - SCOPUS:85101000576
SN - 1862-3522
VL - 16
JO - Archives of Osteoporosis
JF - Archives of Osteoporosis
IS - 1
M1 - 28
ER -