The Readability Analysis of Online Education Materials for Kidney Transplantation

The growing use of online information influences people's healthcare decision making in terms of treatment or consulting a doctor. The readability of a website is a factor that influences the correct understanding of its content. Regarding that there is little information about the readability as well as the credibility of health websites in the field of kidney transplantation, the present study assesses the readability and trustworthiness of websites in this topic.

Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines were used to search for "Kidney Transplantation" and "Renal Transplantation.". Four readability scales were applied to assess the readability of the first 30 results of each search engine. The HONcode toolbar was applied to recognize credible websites. The relationship between HONcode verification and website position on the search results pages was explored. Furthermore, the difference between the readability scores and website position on the search results pages was tested. The readability difference between search result pages was also examined.

According to the results, the assessed websites are suitable for students or high school graduates. Furthermore, the association between the average readability of websites and website position on the search results pages was significant (p-value<0.05). A significant association between HONcode-verified sites and website position on the search results pages was also revealed (p-value=0.011).

The readability of kidney transplantation websites is far above the recommended level. Therefore, health organizations must consider readability while designing their websites.