Readability Analysis of Internet-Based Information on Early Childhood Caries

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Akgün S. E.

12th International Hippocrates Congress on Medical and Health Sciences, 1 - 02 Eylül 2023, ss.108, (Özet Bildiri)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Özet Bildiri
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.108
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

Aim: This study aimed to determine the readability level of information on the Internet regarding Early Childhood Caries (ECC). Methods: Using the keyword 'Early childhood caries', a search was conducted on websites using the four most frequently used search engines (Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, and Google). After evaluating the first five page results of the search engines and following the exclusion criteria out of 216 sites, 36 sites were included in the study. Website ownership is grouped as Private Dental Clinics (PDC), Specialist Dentists (SD), and Dentists (DT). The contents obtained from the sites were evaluated according to the Atesman Readability Formula (ARF). Normality was evaluated using the Shapiro-Wilk test. The relationship between Atesman scores was examined using the Kruskal-Wallis test. The significance level was set at p=0.05. Results: Of the 36 websites, 25 (69%) belonged to SD, seven (19%) to PDC, and four (11%) to DT. The average sentence length of the contents obtained from the websites was 14.5 (8.1-26.8) and the word length was 2.68 (2.48-2.89). According to the ARF, the scoring of the sites was determined as 51.35 (21.2-76.4). There was no significant difference in the number of words, number of sentences, word length, sentence length, and ARF values between the study groups (p>0.05). Conclusions: It has been seen that the contents created for the purpose of informing the patients about 'Early childhood caries' on Turkish websites have reading difficulties at the high school level. Although these texts are of high quality and have sufficient content, the desired effects on the readers will not be seen if they are not understood by the patients. For patient education and information texts to be easier to read, it would be beneficial for patients and their relatives to be evaluated using readability tools before they are published.

Keywords: Early Childhood Caries, Internet, Readability