Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Apr-Jun;12(2):188-193.
doi: 10.4103/sjmms.sjmms_443_23. Epub 2024 Apr 5.

Quality and Readability Assessment of Web-based Arabic Health Information on Early Childhood Caries

Shahad S Alkhuwaiter  1 , Fatimah Alssafi  2 , Renad Alshunaiber  2 , Yasser Bin Ahmed  3 , Bayan Albdah  4
Affiliations

Quality and Readability Assessment of Web-based Arabic Health Information on Early Childhood Caries

Shahad S Alkhuwaiter et al. Saudi J Med Med Sci. 2024 Apr-Jun.

Abstract

Background: Patients are increasingly using the internet for searching health-related information. However, the quality and readability of the information available on the internet need to be assessed. To date, no study has assessed the quality and readability of web-based Arabic health information on early childhood caries.

Objectives: To evaluate the quality and readability of patient-oriented online Arabic health information regarding early childhood caries.

Materials and methods: For this infodemiological study, the Google and Yahoo search engines were searched using specific Arabic terms for early childhood caries, and the top 100 searches from both search engines were considered. Eligible websites were categorized in terms of affiliation as commercial, health portal, dental practice, professional, and journalism. The quality of the websites was assessed using the QUality Evaluation Scoring Tool (QUEST), and readability using the Gunning Fog index (GFI).

Results: A total of 140 websites were included after applying the exclusion criteria, of which 50.7% websites were of journalism. The majority of the websites (70%) had an overall low-quality level, with a QUEST score <10. The quality of websites retrieved from Google searches was of significantly higher quality than those from Yahoo (P < 0.0001). More than half (51.4%) of the websites had good readability, with a GFI score ≤8. Journalism websites had a significantly higher proportion of websites with poor readability level (62%) compared with other affiliations (P = 0.0072).

Conclusion: The web-based Arabic information regarding early childhood caries is currently of low quality and moderate readability level, thereby indicating a need for improving such patient-facing content.

Keywords: Arabic; caries; early childhood caries; health; health education; health information; internet; quality; web-based.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Description of the QUality Evaluation Scoring Tool evaluation criteria.[15] Individual sections score is weighted and summed to generate an overall score of up to 28
Figure 2
Figure 2
Gunning Fog Index scores categorized according to the reading level score by grade
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Vachirarojpisan T, Shinada K, Kawaguchi Y, Laungwechakan P, Somkote T, Detsomboonrat P. Early childhood caries in children aged 6-19 months. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2004;32:133–42. - PubMed
    1. Kotha SB. Prevalence and risk factors of early childhood caries in the Middle East region: A systematic review. J Popul Ther Clin Pharmacol. 2022;29:e43–57. - PubMed
    1. World Internet Users Statistics and World Population Stats. 2023. [[Last accessed on 2024 Jan 28]]. Available from: https://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm .
    1. de Boer MJ, Versteegen GJ, van Wijhe M. Patients'use of the internet for pain-related medical information. Patient Educ Couns. 2007;68:86–97. - PubMed
    1. Parker RM, Williams MV, Weiss BD, Baker DW, Davis TC, Doak CC, et al. Health literacy: Report of the council on scientific affairs. Ad hoc committee on health literacy for the council on scientific affairs, American Medical Association. JAMA. 1999;281:552–7. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources