Identifying and Evaluating Online Kidney Stone Pain Resources: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction and objectives With the continuous growth of social media platforms, an increasing number of individuals are turning to them as their main source of medical information. This article aims to pinpoint the most widely accessed online resources on kidney stone pain among those who suffer from kidney stones and to assess the reliability, understandability, quality, and actionability of their content. Materials and methods The social media analysis platform BuzzSumo was employed to identify pertinent articles and assess their engagement levels. The DISCERN instrument was utilized to evaluate the quality of the top 10 most popular articles, while online software for determining reading grade levels was used to assess article readability. Additionally, the PEMAT (Patient Education Material Assessment Tool) was employed to gauge the actionability and understandability of these articles. Results The BuzzSumo results were obtained through four search categories: "passing stones," "home remedies," "stent pain," and "back pain." DISCERN exhibited a mean article score of 2.67/5, indicating low quality. The average reading grade level for articles was 10.4, with a median of 10. PEMAT results indicated an average understandability score of 60%, signifying that most articles were not easily understandable, and an average actionability score of 31%, indicating a lack of actionable steps in the majority of articles to improve health outcomes. Conclusions Online resources about kidney stone pain were found to have shortcomings, including content with a reading level higher than average, and a lack of actionable solutions for improving overall health.