Alveolar osteitis: A qualitative and readability assessment of patient information on the Internet

Background Data regarding the quality of online information regarding alveolar osteitis (AO) are lacking. Objective To assess the quality of online information regarding AO. Materials and Methods Two search terms (“alveolar osteitis” and “dry socket”) were entered separately into three search engine...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oral surgery 2022-11, Vol.15 (4), p.507-514
Main Authors: Meade, Maurice J., Dreyer, Craig W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
alveolar osteitis
dry socket
Internet
Osteitis
quality of information
readability
Smog
Statistical analysis
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Summary:Background Data regarding the quality of online information regarding alveolar osteitis (AO) are lacking. Objective To assess the quality of online information regarding AO. Materials and Methods Two search terms (“alveolar osteitis” and “dry socket”) were entered separately into three search engines. A qualitative assessment of the websites that satisfied inclusion/exclusion criteria was carried out using the QUality Evaluation Scoring Tool (QUEST), the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks, and via the presence of the Health on the Net (HON)code seal. Website readability was evaluated using the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and Flesch Reading Ease Score tools. Statistical analyses were performed by GraphPad Software® (GraphPad Software Inc., La Jolla, CA, U.S.). Results Most of the 31 assessed websites were from the United States (41.93%). The mean QUEST score was 14.10 out of a maximum 28 (SD = 4.63; 95% CI: 11.80–16.39). Eight (25.8%) websites scored three or all four JAMA benchmarks and four (12.9%) scored zero. Five (16.12%) displayed the HONcode seal. Higher QUEST scores were recorded for websites that satisfied at least three out of JAMA criteria (p 
ISSN:1752-2471
1752-248X
DOI:10.1111/ors.12739