Assessing the Readability, Quality, and Visual Accessibility of Patient Education Websites for Laser Refractive Surgery.

Purpose: To assess the usability of patient education websites for refractive surgery through an analysis of readability, accountability, subjective quality, and visual accessibility.

Methods: 50 patient education websites for five refractive surgery modalities were gathered from an incognito Google search and categorized by authorship category: institutional, medical organization, or private practice. Each website was assessed for readability, accountability using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark, subjective quality using the DISCERN instrument, and visual accessibility was assessed using the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE).

Results: The mean reading grade across all websites was 11.02, exceeding the American Medical Association's recommended 6th-grade level ( < .001). Institutional websites were the most readable (10.32,  = 0.005) while private practice sites were the least (11.74,  = 0.015). The average JAMA score was 1.52 with no website meeting all four accountability criteria. Websites from medical organizations had significantly higher JAMA scores (1.94,  = 0.049). The average DISCERN score was 51.97 with no differences between authorship categories. Websites had an average of 87.84 visual accessibility violations.

Conclusions: Available patient education websites for refractive surgery may suffer from poor readability, quality, and visual accessibility which may limit their usability.