Preeclampsia information on the internet: An application of five readability tests

Lalitha Samuel; Joseph Fera; Corey H Basch

doi:10.1016/j.preghy.2022.09.004

Preeclampsia information on the internet: An application of five readability tests

Pregnancy Hypertens. 2022 Dec:30:110-112. doi: 10.1016/j.preghy.2022.09.004. Epub 2022 Sep 20.

Authors

Lalitha Samuel¹, Joseph Fera², Corey H Basch³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Promotion and Nutrition Sciences, Lehman College, The City University of New York Bronx, NY 10468, USA. Electronic address: Lalitha.Samuel@lehman.cuny.edu.
² Department of Mathematics, Lehman College, The City University of New York Bronx, NY 10468, USA.
³ Department of Public Health, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ 07470, USA.

PMID: 36155112
DOI: 10.1016/j.preghy.2022.09.004

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the readability level of information on 100 unique websites with information on preeclampsia. Five different readability measures were used to measure each website's readability via an online readability calculator. All five readability measures determined that a vast majority of the sites sampled were written at unacceptable levels (89%+). Independent one-tailed t-tests (α = 0.05) determined that there was no statistical difference in the readability scores of.com vs the other websites on any of the 5 readability assessments. We recommend that efforts be made to simplify language in accordance with plain language recommendations for health information in the United States.

Keywords: Health seeking behavior; Online information; Preeclampsia; Readability.

MeSH terms

Comprehension
Consumer Health Information*
Female
Humans
Internet
Pre-Eclampsia* / diagnosis
United States