BACKGROUND: Foreign body (FB) inhalation, ingestion, and insertion account for 11% of emergency admissions for ear, nose, and throat conditions. Children are disproportionately affected, and urgent intervention may be needed to maintain airway patency and prevent blood vessel occlusion. High-quality, readable online information could help reduce poor outcomes from FBs.
OBJECTIVE: We aim to evaluate the quality and readability of available online health information relating to FBs.
METHODS: In total, 6 search phrases were queried using the Google search engine. For each search term, the first 30 results were captured. Websites in the English language and displaying health information were included. The provider and country of origin were recorded. The modified 36-item Ensuring Quality Information for Patients tool was used to assess information quality. Readability was assessed using a combination of tools: Flesch Reading Ease score, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning-Fog Index, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook.
RESULTS: After the removal of duplicates, 73 websites were assessed, with the majority originating from the United States (n=46, 63%). Overall, the quality of the content was of moderate quality, with a median Ensuring Quality Information for Patients score of 21 (IQR 18-25, maximum 29) out of a maximum possible score of 36. Precautionary measures were not mentioned on 41% (n=30) of websites and 30% (n=22) did not identify disk batteries as a risky FB. Red flags necessitating urgent care were identified on 95% (n=69) of websites, with 89% (n=65) advising patients to seek medical attention and 38% (n=28) advising on safe FB removal. Readability scores (Flesch Reading Ease score=12.4, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level=6.2, Gunning-Fog Index=6.5, and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook=5.9 years) showed most websites (56%) were below the recommended sixth-grade level.
CONCLUSIONS: The current quality and readability of information regarding FBs is inadequate. More than half of the websites were above the recommended sixth-grade reading level, and important information regarding high-risk FBs such as disk batteries and magnets was frequently excluded. Strategies should be developed to improve access to high-quality information that informs patients and parents about risks and when to seek medical help. Strategies to promote high-quality websites in search results also have the potential to improve outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The development of internet technology has greatly increased the ability of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to obtain health information, giving patients more initiative in the patient-physician decision-making process. However, concerns about the quality of website health information will affect the enthusiasm of patients\' website search behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the current situation of Chinese internet information on COPD.
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the quality of COPD treatment information on the Chinese internet.
METHODS: Using the standard disease name \"\" (\"chronic obstructive pulmonary disease\" in Chinese) and the commonly used public search terms \"\" (\"COPD\") and \"\" (\"emphysema\") combined with the keyword \"\" (\"treatment\"), we searched the PC client web page of Baidu, Sogou, and 360 search engines and screened the first 50 links of the website from July to August 2021. The language was restricted to Chinese for all the websites. The DISCERN tool was used to evaluate the websites.
RESULTS: A total of 96 websites were included and analyzed. The mean overall DISCERN score for all websites was 30.4 (SD 10.3; range 17.3-58.7; low quality), no website reached the maximum DISCERN score of 75, and the mean score for each item was 2.0 (SD 0.7; range 1.2-3.9). There were significant differences in mean DISCERN scores between terms, with \"chronic obstructive pulmonary disease\" having the highest mean score.
CONCLUSIONS: The quality of COPD information on the Chinese internet is poor, which is mainly reflected in the low reliability and relevance of COPD treatment information, which can easily lead consumers to make inappropriate treatment choices. The term \"chronic obstructive pulmonary disease\" has the highest DISCERN score among commonly used disease search terms. It is recommended that consumers use standard disease names when searching for website information, as the information obtained is relatively reliable.

Demand for online educational tools has risen steadily as technological innovations have evolved over the past several decades. Websites were the first platform to be introduced, and eventually used for online schooling, soon after the advent of the World Wide Web. Access to information and updated content in a short period of time on a wide-screen device such as a computer made websites popular early in their development. With the technological revolution of smart phones, mobile applications have been developed on various operating systems and, through this progress, a new form of educational platform was initiated. The portable features of mobile applications represent a pioneer era of educational tools for medical professionals. Online communications have transformed into social media over the last decade and have since been adopted by much of the world. All three of these educational platforms have created a significant impact on medical education communities, specifically in radiology. We describe the relative strengths of each platform and illustrate how our experience over more than two decades guides our recommendations.

The Internet is the most used source of HIV information second to information received from healthcare professionals. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of Internet information about periodontitis in people living with HIV (PLWH). An Internet search was performed on 18 April 2024 using the search terms \"Periodontitis\", \"Periodontal disease\", and \"Gum disease\" in combination with \"HIV\" in the most popular search engines (Google™, Bing™, and YAHOO!®). The first 20 results from each search term engine were pooled for analysis. Quality was assessed by JAMA benchmarks. Readability was assessed using the Flesch reading ease score (FRES). Origin of the site, type of author, and information details were also recorded. The quality of Internet information about periodontitis in PLWH varied. The mean JAMA score was 2.81 (SD = 1.0). The websites were generally fairly difficult to read (mean FRES = 57.1, SD = 15.0). Most websites provided some advice about self-treatment of oral problems, accompanied by a strong recommendation to seek professional dental care. In conclusion, advanced reading skills on periodontitis in PLWH were required and quality features were mostly not provided. Therefore, healthcare professionals should be actively involved in developing high-quality information resources and direct patients to evidence-based materials on the Internet.

Considering the growing demand for egg donation (ED) and the scarcity of women coming forward as donors to meet this demand, scholars have expressed concerns that clinics may (initially) misrepresent risks to recruit more donors. Additionally, (non-)monetary incentives might be used to try to influence potential donors, which may pressure these women or cause them to dismiss their concerns. Since the internet is often the first source of information and first impressions influence individuals\' choices, we examined the websites of fertility clinics to explore how they present medical risks, incentives and emotional appeals. Content Analysis and Frame Analysis were used to analyze a sample of Belgian, Spanish and UK clinic websites. The data show that the websites mainly focus on extreme and dangerous risks and side effects (e.g. severe OHSS) even though it is highly relevant for donors to be informed about less severe but more frequently occurring risks and side effects (e.g. bloating), since those influence donors\' daily functioning. The altruistic narrative of ED in Europe was dominant in the data, although some (hidden) financial incentives were found on Spanish and UK websites. Nonetheless, all information about financial incentives still were presented subtly or in combination with altruistic incentives.

Abortion is an essential healthcare service in many countries including Canada. The number of people who seek abortion is disproportionately higher among equity-deserving populations. Yet the knowledge needed to provide evidence-based, culturally safe, and gender-affirming abortion services remain limited among healthcare professionals. Using an intersectional lens, we conducted focus group discussions with 14 healthcare professionals to understand how an abortion web-based platform, which is currently under development, can be adapted to meet the needs of equity deserving populations. The findings revealed the need for multi-lingual resources on abortion, information on funding coverage for undocumented migrants, educational resources on Indigenous cultural safety and gender-affirming practices, and a mapping tool to locate providers or pharmacists. Beyond presenting clinical guidelines on web platforms, this study revealed important considerations for the design of web platforms that can help advance access to abortion for equity-deserving populations.

UNASSIGNED: Web-based physical activity interventions often fail to reach the anticipated public health impact due to insufficient use by the intended audiences.
UNASSIGNED: The purpose of this study was to use a human-centered design process to optimize the user experience of the Interrupting Prolonged sitting with ACTivity (InPACT) at Home website to promote youth physical activity participation.
UNASSIGNED: Qualitative interviews were conducted to assess engagement and pain points with the InPACT at Home website. Interview data were used to create affinity maps to identify themes of user responses, conduct a heuristic evaluation according to Nielsen\'s usability heuristics framework, and complete a competitive analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors who offered similar products.
UNASSIGNED: Key themes from end user interviews included liking the website design, finding the website difficult to navigate, and wanting additional features (eg, library of watched videos). The website usability issues identified were lack of labeling and categorization of exercise videos, hidden necessary actions and options hindering users from decision-making, error-prone conditions, and high cognitive load of the website. Competitive analysis results revealed that YouTube received the highest usability ratings followed by the Just Dance and Presidential Youth Fitness Program websites.
UNASSIGNED: Human-centered design approaches are useful for bringing end users and developers together to optimize user experience and impact public health. Future research is needed to examine the effectiveness of the InPACT at Home website redesign to attract new users and retain current users, with the end goal of increasing youth physical activity engagement.

BACKGROUND: Temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are a prevalent ailment with a global impact, affecting a substantial number of individuals. While some individuals are receiving treatment from orthodontists for TMD, a significant proportion of individuals obtain knowledge through websites.
OBJECTIVE: Our purpose had been to evaluate, from a patient-oriented perspective, the readability of home pages of websites scored in the 10 most prominent devoted to TMD. We also determined what level of education would have been needed to get an overview of the information on the websites under scrutiny. This approach ensures that our findings are centred on the patient experience, providing insights into how accessible and understandable websites about TMD.
METHODS: We determined the top 10 patient-focused English language websites by searching for \'temporomandibular disorders\' in the \'no country redirect\' plugin of the Google Chrome browser (www.google.com/ncr). The readability of the texts was assessed using the Gunning fog index (GFI), Coleman Liau index (CLI), Automated readability index (ARI) Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), Flesch Kincald grade level (FKGL), Flesh reasing ease (FRE) (https://readabilityformulas.com).
RESULTS: The mean Flesch reading ease index score was determined to be 48.67, accompanied by a standard deviation of 15.04 and these websites require an average of 13.49 years of formal education (GFI), with a standard deviation of 2.62, for ease of understanding.
CONCLUSIONS: Our research indicates that a significant proportion of websites related to TMD can be defined as a level of complexity that exceeds the ability to read comprehension of the general population.

BACKGROUND: Plastic surgery residency programs leverage their websites as platforms for promoting their commitment to diversity and inclusion to potential candidates. Medical students who are seeking residency positions, including individuals from underrepresented backgrounds, place significant importance on the alignment of program culture and diversity. The authors assessed how these programs showcased diversity and inclusion efforts on their websites.
METHODS: The authors analyzed 89 plastic surgery integrated residency program websites for the presence of 12 elements, (1) nondiscrimination, (2) diversity and inclusion statement, (3) community resources, (4) extended resident biographies, (5) faculty biographies, (6) faculty photos, (7) resident photos, (8) additional financial resources for trainees, (9) wellness, (10) mental health resources, (11) health disparities/community engagement, and (12) presence of a diversity council. Additionally, we examined the presence of these 12 elements by geographic region (West, Midwest, South, and Northeast). Our analyzed use chi-squared, t-tests, and Mann-Whitney U; significance level was p = 0.005. The independent plastic surgery programs were excluded, considering their websites were combined with the integrated-residency programs.
RESULTS: We reviewed 89 websites from February 9, 2024 until February 24, 2024 and on average had 6.32 ± 1.1 diversity and inclusion elements. Resident photos (n = 84, 94.4%), community resources (n = 55, 61.8%), faculty photos (n = 63, 70.8%), and additional financial resources for trainees (n = 56, 62.9%) were the most common. The least common diversity and inclusion elements were diversity councils (n = 12, 13.5%), wellness resources (n = 36, 40.4%), and diversity and inclusion statements (n = 42, 47.2%). The primary analysis revealed that programs with higher number of incoming positions (3 or more) (5.2 ± 1.8) had a significantly higher diversity and inclusion scores when compared to programs with lower number of incoming positions (3.6 ± 2.1) (p = 0.002). Furthermore, based on the geographic regions from the U.S. Census, there was no significant difference between geographic regions.
CONCLUSIONS: Characterizing the number of program websites and quantifying the number of diversity elements on each site provide an opportunity for more residency programs to further commit to diversity and inclusion. Displaying different diversity and inclusive initiatives on program websites may attract more diverse applicants, particularly individuals from underrepresented populations in medicine.

Images on the homepages of private practice dermatology websites often do not reflect the racial diversity of the metropolitan area in which each practice is located. A Google Maps scraper (Apify) was used to identify websites for private practices in 27 United States metropolitan areas selected from the 2020 U.S. Census list of 100 largest areas where non-white individuals makeup more than 50% of the population. Homepages from the top ten websites listed by the search engine were analyzed for images, use of non-English language, and mention of \"Skin of Color\" or \"Ethnic Skin.\" One hundred seventeen websites were included. Two mentioned \"Skin of Color\" or \"Ethnic Skin\"; seven mentioned a non-English language. A significantly lower percentage of non-white-presenting patients (p < 0.001) and providers (p < 0.001) were pictured on the selected dermatology websites than reported in the Census. These findings suggest that the images on the homepages of private practice dermatology websites were not reflective of the racial diversity of the metropolitan area in which each practice is located. Private practice dermatologists should be mindful of how their services are represented online, as it may dissuade potential minoritized patients from seeking dermatologic care.