A Comprehensive Analysis of Online Patient Educational Materials for Lichen Sclerosus (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Lichen sclerosus is a vulvar skin condition with sincere effects on patient quality of life. Due to the sensitive nature of the disease, patients are more likely to search their health information online. However, little is known about the quality of online patient educational materials for lichen sclerosus. OBJECTIVE To comprehensively assess online patient educational materials for lichen sclerosus METHODS Keyword searches for “lichen sclerosus” and “vulvar lichen sclerosus” were conducted using Google. Relevant results were assessed for readability, understandability, actionability, and overall quality. RESULTS Online patient educational materials were consistently written at a level higher than the recommended grade level and lacked understandability, actionability, and overall quality. CONCLUSIONS As patients increasingly turn to online information for their health decisions, it is noteworthy that the majority of materials lacked acceptable readability, understandability, actionability, or overall quality. ​To bridge this gap, healthcare providers can play an important role by identifying or creating resources with accurate information to recommend to their patients. ​Future efforts in the development of patient education materials should prioritize improving readability, understandability, and actionability for vulvar lichen sclerosus.