Evaluating Written Patient Information for Eczema in German: Comparing the Reliability of Two Instruments, DISCERN and EQIP

Abstract

Patients actively seek information about how to cope with their health problems, but the quality of the information available varies. A number of instruments have been developed to assess the quality of patient information, primarily though in English. Little is known about the reliability of these instruments when applied to patient information in German. The objective of our study was to investigate and compare the reliability of two validated instruments, DISCERN and EQIP, in order to determine which of these instruments is better suited for a further study pertaining to the quality of information available to German patients with eczema. Two independent raters evaluated a random sample of 20 informational brochures in German. All the brochures addressed eczema as a disorder and/or therapy options and care. Intra-rater and inter-rater reliability were assessed by calculating intra-class correlation coefficients, agreement was tested with weighted kappas, and the correlation of the raters’ scores for each instrument was measured with Pearson’s correlation coefficient. DISCERN demonstrated substantial intra- and inter-rater reliability. It also showed slightly better agreement than EQIP. There was a strong correlation of the raters’ scores for both instruments. The findings of this study support the reliability of both DISCERN and EQIP. However, based on the results of the inter-rater reliability, agreement and correlation analyses, we consider DISCERN to be the more precise tool for our project on patient information concerning the treatment and care of eczema.

Patient Information Websites About Medically Induced Second-Trimester Abortions: A Descriptive Study of Quality, Suitability, and Issues

“…Two validated instruments [32-34] developed by patient information experts and laypeople were used to assess the quality of the included websites. The DISCERN instrument has been used extensively in previous studies to assess the quality of information on the Web about many different health issues, such as congenital heart defects [14] and caesarean section [45].…”

“…The DISCERN instrument [30] and the Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) tool [31] were used to assess website quality; both are validated and reliable instruments for systematically assessing the quality of patient information [32-34]. The DISCERN instrument was chosen because it has been used extensively in previous studies, and the EQIP tool was chosen because it includes dimensions not covered by DISCERN, such as design and language [34].…”

“…The DISCERN instrument was chosen because it has been used extensively in previous studies, and the EQIP tool was chosen because it includes dimensions not covered by DISCERN, such as design and language [34]. The 2 instruments were translated into Swedish by a native Swedish speaker and back-translated by a native English speaker to check for consistency.…”

Principal Component Analysis: A Tool for Identifying Web Document Characteristics Affecting Quality of Drug Information Websites

“…Cohen's kappa statistic were applied to test inter-rater agreement and the kappa values were interpreted in agreement with Fleiss: 0.0 to 0.40 poor, 0.41 to 0.75 fair to good, and >0.76 excellent (Fleiss et al, 2003;McCool et al, 2015). All data were processed by a Notebook equipped with Intel® Core TM i3…”

“…DISCERN is easy to use and can be utilized not only patients but also pharmacists or authors of health information as a standard guide which users are qualified for anticipation. A variety of reports has characterized the manner in which consumers search for health-related information and has been assessing the quality of health-related information on the websites (Woodruff, 1996;Jadad, 2006;McCool, et al, 2015;Memon, et al, 2016). There is no research study on the Web document characteristics of drug information websites and the quality of providing drug information.…”