https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8544-4871
![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Background
The medical information about anemia prevention produced by health-care professionals is difficult to understand because of its complicated terminology.
Purpose
To evaluate quantitatively for the first time the clarity of existing online information about anemia prevention in Japanese.
Methods
On January 20, 2023, we used the keyword “anemia” to evaluate 200 websites, followed by use of the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Printable Materials (PEMAT-P) and the Clear Communication Index (CCI) to evaluate understandability and actionability. The PEMAT-P and CCI were both evaluated as excellent in terms of understandability and actionability, with cutoff values of 70% or higher and 90% or higher, respectively. We also evaluated readability using jReadability and quality using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Benchmark Criteria and The Global Quality Scale (GQS).
Results
The PEMAT-P scores for understandability and actionability exceeded the cutoff value in 59 (29.5%) and 36 cases (18.0%), respectively, while the CCI exceeded the cutoff value in two cases (1.0%). With respect to web pages, nine (4.5%) were considered “readable” and 96 (48.0%) “neutral.”
Discussion
These findings suggest that websites on anemia in Japanese have poor “understandability,” “actionability,” and “readability,” and are therefore inaccessible to the general public.
Translation to Health Education Practice
Improving existing anemia websites using indicators such as the PEMAT-P could improve behaviors related to anemia prevention.
Acknowledgments
This study used the “Japanese Sentence Difficulty Discrimination System” (http://jreadability.net), a product of a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Project No. 25370573).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Criteria for inclusion in the authors’/contributors’ list
This manuscript has been read and approved by all authors. Ito played a key role in the study design, data collection, statistical analysis, and writing of the paper; Furukawa provided support in the study data collection, statistical analysis, and writing of the paper.