Prostate Cancer on the Web—Expedient Tool for Patients’ Decision-Making?

Abstract

Many patients diagnosed with cancer search for health information on the Web. We aimed to assess the quality and reliability of online health information on prostate cancer. Google, Yahoo, and Bing were searched for the term "prostate cancer." After selecting the most frequented websites, quality was measured by DISCERN score, JAMA benchmark criteria, and presence of HONcode certification. Popularity was assessed by Alexa tool, while accessibility, usability, and reliability were investigated by LIDA tool. Readability was analyzed by Flesch-Kincaid Reading Grade Level and Automated Readability Index. All 13 selected websites were rated as being of high quality according to the DISCERN instrument (76.5 ± 2.6 out of 80 points). JAMA benchmark criteria were fulfilled by 87 % of websites, whereas only 37 % were certified by the HONcode. Median Alexa Traffic Rank was 2718 ranging from 7 to 679,038. Websites received 2.3 ± 0.5 daily pageviews per visitor and users spent an average of 2 min 58 s ± 39 sec on the website. Accessibility (92 ± 5 %) and usability (92 ± 3 %) scores were high and reliability (88 ± 8 %) moderate according to the LIDA tool. Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level was 7.9 ± 2.2, and Automated Readability Index was 7.5 ± 2.4, rating the websites as fairly difficult to read. In conclusion, quality, accessibility, and usability of websites on prostate cancer provided a high rating in the current analysis. These findings are encouraging in view of the growing frequency of patients' access of health information online.

Exploring the Most Visible German Websites on Melanoma Immunotherapy: A Web-Based Analysis

“…Additionally, sentences were sometimes very long and nested, especially in oncology expert websites which makes readability more complicated. This pattern of high usability but low reliability and readability has also been found to be typical for websites providing cancer information [20,21,24,39] including those providing information on melanoma [16,19]. It is fundamental that patients can easily read treatment text and understand the medical terms to benefit from information.…”

“…The DISCERN tool (www.discern.de) is commonly used to assess the quality of information on cancer [20,24,27] and was developed for use by lay persons [28]. It consists of 16 items to review (1) a publication's transparency (items 1-8), (2) content (items 9-15), and (3) to give an intuitive assessment summary (item 16).…”

“…It has become common practice to review most visible online cancer information on therapy using scientifically validated tools [20][21][22][23][24] to explore what shortcomings exist and what should be taken into account when using the information. Online treatment information is used by patients to support their treatment decision-making [25].…”

Widespread use of internet, applications, and social media in the professional life of urology residents

“…23 Concerning online health information, quality assessments have to be performed regularly to ensure the correctness of information, as it has been recently presented for prostate cancer and robotic prostatectomy. 9,10 Almost as much as the internet, apps are an important part of the daily professional life of urology residents, with a median use of 25 minutes per day and a usage rate of 89%. Similar to the internet, 89% found apps useful or very useful for clinical practice.…”

“…symplur.com), has recorded. 8 In urology, digital media have been used to provide information on urological websites, [9][10][11] to search health information using urological apps during clinical practice, 2 and to interact on SoMe for academic and clinical purposes. 3,[12][13][14] Urologists are at the forefront of SoMe use, with private usage rates varying between 49% among urologists in Canada and 86% among residents from the American Urological Association (AUA) in 2013; [15][16][17] however, only an assessment of professional use can help to determine the value of digital media for clinical practice and academic exchange.…”