Readability, Content Quality, and Reliability of Turkish Websites on Diabetes Mellitus

INTRODUCTION: The aim was to evaluate the knowledge content, readability level, reliability, and quality levels of Turkish websites prepared about diabetes
METHODS: The Turkish words “sugar disease” were searched for using the Google (https: //www.google.com.tr) search engine. Ateşman and Bezirci-Yılmaz readability values of the texts included in the study were calculated. The reliability of the content was evaluated using the Quality Criteria for Consumer Health Information (DISCERN) scale, based on the diabetes mellitus (DM) diagnosis and treatment guidelines (2022) published by the Turkish Endocrinology and Metabolism Association, while the writing quality and reliability of the text were assessed using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) score.
RESULTS: Of the 111 Turkish websites included in the study, 89 were prepared by health professionals (80.2%) (Group 1) and 22 were prepared by others (19.8%) (Group 2). For all websites, the mean value for readability level was 50.2±8.1 according to Ateşman and 12.9±2.5 according to Bezirci-Yılmaz. There was no statistically significant difference between Group 1 and Group 2 in terms of Ateşman and Bezirci-Yılmaz readability levels (p=0.249, p=0.207, respectively). For all websites, the median DISCERN scale scores were 31 (17–68), with a mean JAMA score of 1 (0–3). The DISCERN scale scores and JAMA scores were statistically significantly higher for websites in Group 1 compared to websites in Group 2 (p=0.001, p=0.014, respectively).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Turkish-language internet texts on DM demonstrated poor readability, with difficult and university-level readability according to the Ateşman and Bezirci–Yılmaz indices, respectively, and were found to have inadequate content quality and low reliability based on the DISCERN scale and JAMA score.

Keywords: Diabetes, diabetes mellitus, internet, quality, readability, reliability