The Readability of Online Patient Resources for Skin Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Introduction

Treatment options for skin cancer vary and to help facilitate the decision-making process many patients will look to online resources. However, general literacy levels in the population are low, making many of these online sources unreadable, worsening health inequality. We therefore identified the most frequently accessed online patient-orientated information relating to skin cancer treatment and assessed their readability.

Methods

The top 10 non-sponsored websites for skin cancer treatment information were identified. Text was analyzed with a set of readability formulae, including SMOG, Flesch Reading Ease and the Coleman-Liao Index. While there are limitations to these formulae, especially when used in the medical literature, they provide a standardized measure of readability across a number of different sources.

Results

All websites were found to have a readability score above the recommended 6th-grade (UK 11–12 year old) level, with some written at the collegiate level.

Conclusions

Many people access health-related information online, however, if this information is not written at the appropriate reading level it is worthless. In this study we have shown using a number of standardized and validated readability formulae that all of the top 10 most commonly accessed websites relating to skin cancer treatment are written above the recommended 6th-grade level. This must be addressed, with attention paid to well constructed and easy-to-read language, in order to prevent another barrier to health equality.

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