B0196 - Online Patient Education for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease – Are Patients Being Misinformed?

Sherif Saleh, MS, MD¹, Sophie Trujillo, DO², Ronnie Fass, MD^3
1MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland, OH; ²University of California Irvine, Cleveland, OH; ³MetroHealth Medical Center/Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

Introduction: Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) is a chronic gastrointestinal disorder that affects about 20% of the US adult population. As more patients turn to the internet for educational resources, our aim was to evaluate the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and readability of online patient education tools that are readily available.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of online patient educational resources for GERD using Google in June 2022. We divided the US into four major regions and performed online searches from the 1) Two of the wealthiest and poorest cities and 2) Two of the largest and smallest cities in each region to determine if variation existed in the availability of online resources. The top 10 Google websites, blogs and videos for the search of “GERD” from each of the 16 cities which were included and independently reviewed. We created a list of 36 items related to GERD that we believe should be included in patient information materials. This list was used to assess for accuracy and comprehensiveness of patient's resources (Table 1). The readability of each website and blog was assessed using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test.

Results: There was no difference in websites, blogs or videos between the 16 cities. We identified a total of 10 websites, 10 blogs and 10 videos. Six websites were from academic sites and four were a compilation of non-academic sites, which we titled “other.” No website, blog or video met 100% of the criteria. Median percentage of total GERD criteria mentioned was 82% for academic websites, 92% for other websites, 61% for blogs, and 61% for videos (Table 1 and Figure 1). Of the criteria, autoimmune disease as a risk factor and sleeping on left side as a lifestyle intervention were least mentioned. All websites and blogs exceeded the average reading level of 6^th grade as recommended for patient education materials by the National Institute of Health.

Discussion: The websites, blogs and videos are consistent and accessible regardless of search location. These resources were accurate, but varied in their comprehensiveness and exceeded the average recommended reading level. It is important for clinicians to be familiar with these patient resources, especially with patients blogs as they were more geared towards lifestyle modifications and included many misconceptions about adverse drug effects.




Disclosures:


Sherif Saleh, MS, MD¹, Sophie Trujillo, DO², Ronnie Fass, MD³. B0196 - Online Patient Education for Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease – Are Patients Being Misinformed?, ACG 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting Abstracts. Charlotte, NC: American College of Gastroenterology.