Online Pemphigus Information Evaluation: Quality, Reliability, Readability, and Comprehensiveness

Aim:The internet is a key resource for information on medical conditions.Such information should be clear, high-quality, and comprehensive.We aimed to evaluate the quality, reliability, readability, recency, popularity, and comprehensiveness of online pemphigus information and examine how these factors are influenced by the producers of websites. Materials and Methods:We searched for "pemphigus" on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, including the top 50 results from each.The websites were categorized as websites for professionals, government websites, dermatology societies, non-profit organizations, and miscellaneous websites.We evaluated reliability using Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Benchmark Criteria and assessed quality using the DISCERN instrument.Readability was measured using the Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index, Gunning Fog Index (GFOG), Coleman-Liau Index, and Automated Readability Index.Popularity was based on SimilarWeb visit counts, and content was assessed using a 15-item checklist.Results: Post-exclusion, the 35 websites had a mean JAMA score of 3.06 and a mean DISCERN score of 59.31, indicating good quality.The average reading-grade was 9.88, suggesting that approximately 10 years of education are required to understand the text.The mean FRES score was 46.03, indicating a college-level difficulty.The average comprehensiveness, based on a 15-item checklist, was 11.5.Follow-up visits were the least frequently mentioned topic (8.6%).Statistically significant differences were observed among the website groups in JAMA scores (p=0.009),FKGL (p=0.012),GFOG (p=0.008),popularity (p=0.002), and information on pemphigus epidemiology (p=0.021),types (p=0.014),differential diagnosis (p=0.008), and prognosis (p=0.023). Conclusion:Although the reliability and quality of many websites were satisfactory, our study emphasizes the need for better readability in pemphigus resources.Dermatologists should help create clear and reliable online information to improve patient understanding and health outcomes.