| Description: |
Introduction: Patients are increasingly using the Internet to obtain healthcare information. Considering 21% of cardiac surgery patients are minorities, 27.9% are in the bottom quartile of household income, and 70% have Medicare/Medicaid or no insurance, online patient educational materials (PEMs) should be accessible and written at a level easily understood by majority of patients. We performed a comprehensive analysis of readability of websites containing patient-centered resources across all adult cardiac surgery areas. Hypothesis: Methods: Online PEMs on cardiac surgical procedures (CSP) were collected from top 50 hospitals for cardiology and heart surgery ranked by US News and World Report as of December 1st, 2021. Text pertaining to CSPs was collected and divided into five procedural genres: mitral valve, coronary artery bypass, heart transplant, aortic valve, and aortic surgeries. Texts were analyzed using OleanderSoftware’s Readability Suite through the Raygor readability test. Results: N=282 articles met criteria for analysis. Online content for all 5 surgical genres were difficult to read, with mean (SD) grade level readability score for all content at 13.8 (3.1, panel a). The mean (SD) readability for mitral valve, coronary artery bypass, heart transplant, aortic valve, and aortic surgeries were 14.4 (3.0, panel b), 13.9 (3.3, panel c), 12.2 (2.7, panel d), 13.5 (3.1, panel e), and 14.3 (2.8, panel f) respectively. Online resources for content within the 5 genres required at least college reading level for comprehension. Conclusions: Online PEMs exceeded the sixth-grade level recommended by the American Medical Association and the second-grade level previous established at our institution in all included genres of adult cardiac surgery. Improving the readability of online PEMs in adult cardiac surgery will facilitate equitable access to high-quality care. |