Health care improvement affects us all and is not optional. For change to occur, consumers must demand excellence from their providers and clinicians. Patient safety is part of a broader set of health care quality issues. Championing this view will not be easy, for it means fundamental change to the myriad interrelated systems that make up U.S. health care. HHS is taking the lead on patient safety through a number of initiatives and activities.
ObjectiveThe aim of the study is to assess the quality, readability, content, accessibility, and structure of online resources for patients with upper limb spasticity.DesignThis was a cross sectional study examined Internet searches across three search engines related to patient resources for upper limb spasticity. Search phrases for either hand or upper limb spasticity were used. The top 20 Websites from each search were evaluated using the four readability metrics and the DISCERN scale for quality assessment. YouTube videos with exact search phrases were evaluated using DISCERN. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software.ResultsThirty-six Websites and 33 videos met the inclusion criteria for this study. The average Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level of the Websites was 11.7 ± 3.1, showing low Website readability. According to this index, only two Websites were written at the suggested sixth-grade level (5.4%). With a maximum score of 75, the mean DISCERN score for both Websites and videos scored in the “good” range (53.5 ± 8 and 50.5 ± 6.6), respectively.ConclusionsCurrent online resources for upper limb spasticity are good in quality but are written above the health literacy level of American citizens. Organizations should consider reviewing their present materials and developing high-quality patient education materials that are easier to understand.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.