gms | German Medical Science

Brücken bauen – von der Evidenz zum Patientenwohl: 19. Jahrestagung des Deutschen Netzwerks Evidenzbasierte Medizin e. V.

Deutsches Netzwerk Evidenzbasierte Medizin e. V.

08.03. - 10.03.2018, Graz

Quality assessment of German websites on immunotherapy for melanoma patients

Meeting Abstract

  • author presenting/speaker Julia Brütting - Department of Dermatology, Dresden University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus
  • author presenting/speaker Theresa Steeb - Department of Dermatology and Allergy, University Hospital, LMU Munich
  • Lydia Reinhardt - Department of Dermatology, Dresden University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus
  • Carola Berking - Department of Dermatology and Allergy, University Hospital, LMU Munich
  • Friedegund Meier - Department of Dermatology, Dresden University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus

Brücken bauen – von der Evidenz zum Patientenwohl. 19. Jahrestagung des Deutschen Netzwerks Evidenzbasierte Medizin. Graz, Österreich, 08.-10.03.2018. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2018. Doc18ebmP1-8

doi: 10.3205/18ebm070, urn:nbn:de:0183-18ebm0706

Published: March 6, 2018

© 2018 Brütting et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Outline

Text

Background/Objective: Patients diagnosed with melanoma frequently search the internet for treatment-related information to compensate for informational deficits. However, health literacy is limited among the German population and no quality assessment of websites addressing melanoma patients has been performed so far. Hence, we have identified the most frequent German websites on immunotherapy for melanoma patients and assessed their quality in order to provide an overview.

Methods: Two independent reviewers searched the first 20 hits on Google, Yahoo, and Bing for a combination of German synonyms for “melanoma” and “immunotherapy” in July 2017. After applying exclusion and inclusion criteria, the most frequent websites were identified. Three reviewers independently assessed their quality by using DISCERN and by assessing the presence of a quality certification. The usability and reliability were evaluated by the LIDA tool, understandability and actionability by PEMAT-P. The Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES) was calculated to estimate readability. Besides, Alexa tool was used to investigate the websites’ popularity. Inter-rater reliability of the three reviewers was calculated using Cohen’s kappa.

Results: Out of 480 websites identified, 45 single websites and 30 domains, respectively, were considered for the quality assessment. As pre-defined, the majority of websites could be categorized as provided by scientific (n=10), general press/public media (n=10), pharmaceutical companies (n=6), or medical online information services (n=7). The average FRES was 16.7 (range -15 to 49), indicating a very difficult readability of website content for lay persons. Overall, only two website domains have displayed a German quality certification (HON-code, AFGIS or Zertifikat Stiftung Gesundheit).

The assessment of the websites’ usability, reliability, understandability and actionability is currently in progress and will presumably be available in January 2018.

Conclusion: Our first results indicate that modification of the most accessible German websites on immunotherapy for melanoma patients is inevitable.