AB036. 250. Arteriovenous fistula for dialysis—let’s Google it. Readability and quality of online information

Background: This study evaluated the readability, accessibility, and quality of information regarding arteriovenous fistula for dialysis on the Internet in the English language.

Methods: Using the Google^© search engine, the keywords “Arteriovenous fistula for dialysis” were searched. The top 74 ranking sites were analyzed. Each landing page was assessed independently by two authors (RB, LR) for readability using the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES) and Gunning Fog Index (GFI). Web site quality was assessed using the DISCERN instrument. The country of origin, organization type and issuance of Health on the NET (HoN) Certification was recorded. Statistical analyses were performed using two-sample t test and ANOVA variance.

Results: The mean GFI score was 9.2 and the mean FRES score was 50.6, indicating readability at a high-school level. The mean DISCERN score was 48.4, indicating weak quality of websites. Website quality was influenced by the academic/healthcare organization type (P=0.012). Organization type was not found to impact GFI and FRES scores. Presence of a HoN Certification was not found to impact the quality of information. The majority of sites originated from the United States (61%).

Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that internet information pertaining to arteriovenous fistula for dialysis is of poor quality necessitating improvements to readability and overall website quality to improve the patient experience. The presence of a HoN, the current standard in certifying websites was not found to impact information quality. Further research into how to improve healthcare web information is needed.

Keywords: Internet; readability; quality; fistula; dialysis