Background: Healthcare information is increasingly being sought on the Internet. Ischaemic Heart Disease (IHD) poses a significant health burden. Concern often arises for patients with IHD when undergoing dental treatment leading to online searching for relevant healthcare information.Objective: To evaluate the readability and quality of webpages regarding IHD and dental treatment.Materials and methods: Three searches were performed on the Google search engine. The first 100 results of each search were collated, and exclusion criteria applied. The remaining 66 webpages were categorised. Readability was assessed using the FRES and SMOG readability tools. Quality was assessed using the PEMAT questionnaire, the JAMA benchmarks and the Health on the Net (HON) seal.Results: Most examined webpages were commercial. Readability of 90.1% of webpages was deemed fairly to very difficult. Understandability and actionability scores were generally below the comprehension level of the general population. Less than 50% of websites achieved the authorship, attribution and disclosure JAMA benchmarks. Only 12.1% of websites displayed the HON seal.Conclusions: Online health information related to IHD and dental treatment is generally too difficult for the average individual to read, understand, or act upon; and may be of questionable quality. Given the low health literacy rates amongst the general population, future revisions of educational materials by non-commercial sources regarding IHD and dental treatment are warranted to ensure online health information is understandable and of genuine benefit to patients and/or their carers.
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.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2025 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.