Cargando…

Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Internet usage worldwide has become a primary source of health-related information and an important resource for parents to find advice on how to promote their child’s development and well-being. It is important that healthcare professionals understand what information is availa...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Coughler, Caitlin, M Burke, Shauna, Cardy, Janis Oram
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9620457/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36381543
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2396941520917940
_version_ 1784821340622028800
author Coughler, Caitlin
M Burke, Shauna
Cardy, Janis Oram
author_facet Coughler, Caitlin
M Burke, Shauna
Cardy, Janis Oram
author_sort Coughler, Caitlin
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Internet usage worldwide has become a primary source of health-related information and an important resource for parents to find advice on how to promote their child’s development and well-being. It is important that healthcare professionals understand what information is available to parents online to best support families and children. The current study evaluated the quality of online resources accessible for parents of children who are late to talk. METHOD: Fifty-four web pages were evaluated for their usability and reliability using the LIDA instrument and Health on the Net Foundation code of conduct certification, and readability using the Flesch Reading Ease Score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Origin, author(s), target audience, topics discussed, terminology used, and recommendations were also examined. RESULTS: The majority of websites scored within the moderate range (50–90%) for total LIDA scores and usability, but scored in the low range for reliability (<50%). Significantly higher reliability scores (p < 0.001) were found for sites with Health on the Net Foundation code of conduct certification. Readability fell within the standard range. The largest proportion of websites were American, written by speech-language pathologists, with the most common topics being milestones, tips and strategies, and red flags. Discrepancies were mostly seen in terminology and misinformation, and when present, usually related to risk factors and causes. CONCLUSION: Prior to recommending websites to parents, health professionals should consider readability of the content, check that information is up-to-date, and confirm website sources and reputable authorship. Health professionals should also be aware of the types of unclear or inaccurate information to which parents of children who are late to talk may be exposed online.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9620457
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher SAGE Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-96204572022-11-14 Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk Coughler, Caitlin M Burke, Shauna Cardy, Janis Oram Autism Dev Lang Impair Research Article BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Internet usage worldwide has become a primary source of health-related information and an important resource for parents to find advice on how to promote their child’s development and well-being. It is important that healthcare professionals understand what information is available to parents online to best support families and children. The current study evaluated the quality of online resources accessible for parents of children who are late to talk. METHOD: Fifty-four web pages were evaluated for their usability and reliability using the LIDA instrument and Health on the Net Foundation code of conduct certification, and readability using the Flesch Reading Ease Score and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Origin, author(s), target audience, topics discussed, terminology used, and recommendations were also examined. RESULTS: The majority of websites scored within the moderate range (50–90%) for total LIDA scores and usability, but scored in the low range for reliability (<50%). Significantly higher reliability scores (p < 0.001) were found for sites with Health on the Net Foundation code of conduct certification. Readability fell within the standard range. The largest proportion of websites were American, written by speech-language pathologists, with the most common topics being milestones, tips and strategies, and red flags. Discrepancies were mostly seen in terminology and misinformation, and when present, usually related to risk factors and causes. CONCLUSION: Prior to recommending websites to parents, health professionals should consider readability of the content, check that information is up-to-date, and confirm website sources and reputable authorship. Health professionals should also be aware of the types of unclear or inaccurate information to which parents of children who are late to talk may be exposed online. SAGE Publications 2020-04-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9620457/ /pubmed/36381543 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2396941520917940 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Research Article
Coughler, Caitlin
M Burke, Shauna
Cardy, Janis Oram
Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk
title Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk
title_full Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk
title_fullStr Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk
title_short Analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk
title_sort analysis of the quality of online resources for parents of children who are late to talk
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9620457/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36381543
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2396941520917940
work_keys_str_mv AT coughlercaitlin analysisofthequalityofonlineresourcesforparentsofchildrenwhoarelatetotalk
AT mburkeshauna analysisofthequalityofonlineresourcesforparentsofchildrenwhoarelatetotalk
AT cardyjanisoram analysisofthequalityofonlineresourcesforparentsofchildrenwhoarelatetotalk