Harish Rajashekarappa Siddhanamatha1, Eric Heung2, Maria de Los Angeles Lopez-Olivo1, Noha Abdel-Wahab3, Ana Ojeda-Prias4, Irmgard Willcockson5, Amye Leong6, Maria Eugenia Suarez-Almazor7. 1. Department of General Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. 2. Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) University, Worcester, MA. 3. Department of General Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; Rheumatology & Rehabilitation Department, Assiut University Hospitals, Assiut, Egypt. 4. The University of Houston, Houston, TX. 5. Lonestar College, Montgomery, TX. 6. Healthy Motivation, Santa Barbara, CA. 7. Department of General Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. Electronic address: msalmazor@mdanderson.org.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: We performed an environmental scan of currently available websites providing educational information about rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and evaluated the quality of these websites. METHODS: We searched three separate search engines, Google, Bing, and Ask.com, on August 27, 2015, using two search terms, "arthritis" and "rheumatoid." Only patient education websites were included. Two independent investigators evaluated the accuracy, completeness, technical elements, design and esthetics, readability, usability, and accessibility of the websites. The navigation experience was also evaluated by an adult training expert. RESULTS: We identified 46 websites. Nearly all websites (98%) provided accurate information. However, no website covered all essential RA topics. Common essential topics not covered included epidemiology, pathogenesis, treatment and disease monitoring, complications, self-management, risks and benefits of treatment, prognosis, treatment adherence, questions for patients to ask their doctors, and costs. For the technical elements, all websites disclosed their ownership, but the date that the content was last updated was mentioned in only 10 websites, ranging from 2007 to 2015. The mean reading level was grade 12.1 (standard deviation ±2.3). Most websites (78%) were easy to navigate but only 33% were friendly for people with visual and/or hearing impairments. The navigation experience was rated fair or poor in 41% of the websites. CONCLUSION: Current patient information on the Internet does not comprehensively address all educational needs of patients with RA, and is often outdated. The findings from our study highlight potential areas for improvement in online education materials for patients with RA.
OBJECTIVE: We performed an environmental scan of currently available websites providing educational information about rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and evaluated the quality of these websites. METHODS: We searched three separate search engines, Google, Bing, and Ask.com, on August 27, 2015, using two search terms, "arthritis" and "rheumatoid." Only patient education websites were included. Two independent investigators evaluated the accuracy, completeness, technical elements, design and esthetics, readability, usability, and accessibility of the websites. The navigation experience was also evaluated by an adult training expert. RESULTS: We identified 46 websites. Nearly all websites (98%) provided accurate information. However, no website covered all essential RA topics. Common essential topics not covered included epidemiology, pathogenesis, treatment and disease monitoring, complications, self-management, risks and benefits of treatment, prognosis, treatment adherence, questions for patients to ask their doctors, and costs. For the technical elements, all websites disclosed their ownership, but the date that the content was last updated was mentioned in only 10 websites, ranging from 2007 to 2015. The mean reading level was grade 12.1 (standard deviation ±2.3). Most websites (78%) were easy to navigate but only 33% were friendly for people with visual and/or hearing impairments. The navigation experience was rated fair or poor in 41% of the websites. CONCLUSION: Current patient information on the Internet does not comprehensively address all educational needs of patients with RA, and is often outdated. The findings from our study highlight potential areas for improvement in online education materials for patients with RA.
Authors: Juan Ignacio Ruiz; Gagandeep Singh; McKenna Erck; Yimin Geng; Maria E Suarez-Almazor; Maria A Lopez-Olivo Journal: PLoS One Date: 2022-10-10 Impact factor: 3.752
Authors: Maria A Lopez-Olivo; Jude K A des Bordes; Maha N Syed; Ahmed Alemam; Abhinav Dodeja; Noha Abdel-Wahab; Maria E Suarez-Almazor Journal: Arch Osteoporos Date: 2021-02-10 Impact factor: 2.617