Evaluation of Readability of Turkish Websites on Obesity and Bariatric Surgery

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the readability levels and contents of Turkish websites on obesity and bariatric surgery.
 Methods: A search was performed in June 2019 with the words “obesity” and “bariatric surgery” in Google’s search engine. We evaluated the websites on the first ten pages of Google’s search engine results. Commercial websites, advertisement websites, chat websites, forum websites,
 magazine websites, websites containing only images or videos, and websites with less than ten sentences were excluded. Ateşman and Bezirci Yılmaz’s readability formulas were used to analyze the readability level. Websites were evaluated in terms of content (definition, risk factors, complications, and treatment of obesity) and were divided into three groups (Group 1: hospitals and specialist physicians, Group 2: national news websites, and Group 3: other websites).
 Results: A total of 79 websites were evaluated. There were 43 (54.4%) websites in Group 1, 25 (31.6%) websites in Group 2, and 11 (13.9%) websites in Group 3. The readability level of all sites was ‘difficult,’ according to the Atesman readability formula, and at ‘undergraduate level,’ according to the Bezirci-Yılmaz readability formula. When the contents of these websites were examined, 51.9% contained a definition of obesity, 7.6% contained information on waist circumference, 12.7% contained obesity risk factors, and 43.0% contained obesity-related diseases.
 Conclusion: This study revealed that the readability level of Turkish websites on obesity and bariatric surgery was above the average literacy level of the Turkish people. Furthermore, it determined that these websites did not provide adequate information about bariatric surgery risks, adverse effects, and contraindications.