RATIONALE:Educational support is essential for patients receiving domiciliary oxygen therapy (DOT) for understanding their prescription, appropriate use of their equipment, and safety precautions. Suitable education for patients commencing DOT significantly improves therapy adherence rates. As the internet has become a key source of health information for patients, it is crucial for medical professionals to ensure the accuracy and quality of online information that patients may be accessing. We evaluated available online patient information for DOT on 4 main aspects: content, quality, suitability, and readability. METHODS:We evaluated the first 100 results of three major search engines [Google, Yahoo and Bing] using the terms, "home oxygen therapy" and "information or education". Website content was assessed based on the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and the British Thoracic Society oxygen guidelines, with the highest possible score of 14. Validated tools were used to evaluate resource quality [Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks and DISCERN instrument], suitability [Suitability Assessment of Materials (SAM)], and readability [Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level]. RESULTS:Thirty-six websites met the study inclusion criteria. The majority derived from the medical equipment industry, and did not focus on specific conditions. Approximately half of the websites originated from the United States and a third from Australia. Overall, websites from foundation/advocacy organisations scored the highest in content, quality and suitability, with mean content, DISCERN, and SAM scores of 9.2(SD:4.01), 51.40 (SD:9.45) or "good", and 54.17% (SD:20.40) or "adequate", respectively. The Health On the Net (HON) code that validates the reliability of online healthcare information was present on 13.9% of the websites and only five websites met the four JAMA benchmarks. The mean Flesch Reading Ease score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade level, which indicated the readability of the websites, were 52.6 and 10, both exceeding eight-grade level, the recommended benchmark for consumer health-related educational resources. Websites from the medical equipment industry had the highest reading grade levels, followed by those from healthcare providers. CONCLUSION:The overall content, quality, suitability, and reliability of online health resources for DOT is of a low-to-moderate standard, with the reading grade at an unsuitable level for the general population. Given the potential impact of education on patients' understanding of and adherence to their therapy, it is likely that the development of high quality online resources for DOT with regular updates to provide reliable and relevant information is of importance.
