Female fertility in the cancer setting: availability and quality of online health information

Abstract

As cancer survival rates continue to increase, so does the relevance of starting or expanding a family after cancer, impacting quality of life. However, the option of fertility preservation is not always addressed by physicians before treatment. In the meanwhile, many patients look for health information online. Although potentially helpful in the decision-making process, the Internet could also have adverse effects for this vulnerable patient group when information is incorrect. We aimed to assess the availability and quality of information on female oncofertility on websites of (inter)national oncology, fertility and oncofertility organizations. Availability was identified using an original checklist. Quality was measured by reliability (DISCERN and LIDA instruments), usability (LIDA instrument), and readability (Flesch Kincaid Grade Level test). Of all investigated websites, 52% contained information on oncofertility, with 32% containing a stand-alone page. Of those sites, the amount of treatment options covered were equivalent between specialty sites and general fertility and oncology sites (p = 0.07). The quality of information on treatment choices was the highest for oncofertility websites. Reliability and usability did not differ significantly between websites. No websites evaluated were at the recommended 7th–8th grade reading level. Availability and quality should be improved, and high-quality resources are recommended by physicians.

Keywords:

• Fertility preservation
• cancer
• communication

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Patricia Smith, a Northwestern University librarian, for helping with initial web searches to locate sites that qualified for inclusion in the study. The authors also thank high school students Vani Addepalli (VA) and Semira Allen (SA) for their help with some of the web search activities during a summer internship in the Woodruff Lab. They would also like to thank Joanne in ‘t Hout, a Radboudumc statistician, for helping with statistical analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Center for Reproductive Health After Disease [P50HD076188] from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Translational Research in Reproduction and Infertility (NCTRI).