343 posters, 5 videos, 2 audios, 18 topics, 33 sessions, 263 authors, 202 institutions
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24th Annual Pain Medicine Meeting 2025
November 13-15, 2025| JW Marriott Austin, Austin, Texas
2197368
Evaluating the Readability, Quality, and Reliability of Online Patient Education Materials on Peripheral Nerve Blocks
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Scientific Abstracts > Education
Evaluating the Readability, Quality, and Reliability of Online Patient Education Materials on Peripheral Nerve Blocks
Nivetha Srinivasan MD, Alejandro Hallo-Carrasco MD, Aditi Master MD, Jean D. Eloy MD
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Introduction
•The American Medical Association (AMA) recommends readability of patient education materials (PEMs) should not exceed a 6th-grade reading level
•GOALS:
(1) Assess the readability, quality, and reliability of online PEMs on peripheral nerve blocks (PNBs)
(2) Compare PEMs produced by academic versus private institutions.
Methods
PEM SELECTION
•55 websites were identified from the top 5 pages of Google and Bing for the term “peripheral nerve block.”
•Exclusion Criteria: Insurance-related documents or journal articles aimed at healthcare professionals
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
•Readability: Gunning Fog (GFOG), Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), and Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG)
•Quality: DISCERN tool
•Reliability: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark criteria (Table 1).
STATISTICS
•Mann-Whitney U for readability, quality, and reliability scores
•Chi-Square to compare PEMs from academic and private institutions regarding mention of general risks, local anesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST), types of PNBs, duration of block, and video inclusion
Results
•Mean SMOG and FKGL were 9.39 ± 2.74 and 9.32 ± 3.83, representing a 9th-grade reading level
•Mean FRES and GFOG were 57 ± 16.56 and 11.49 ± 2.80, suggesting fairly difficult reading at the 11th grade level.
•Mean DISCERN score was 51.47 ± 8.99, indicating fair to good quality of PEMs
•Mean JAMA benchmark score was 1.56 ± 1.26, indicating low reliability (Table 1).
•10 websites had the same standardized information created by a singular healthcare education organization. Readability: 8th-grade level as per SMOG and FKGL and fairly easy reading as per FRES and GFOG; Quality: Fair; Reliability: Moderate
•Online PEMs from private institutions had significantly lower reliability and higher reading levels than PEMs from academic institutions (p < 0.01, Table 2).
•There was a significantly higher number of online PEMs from academic institutions that mentioned risks than from private institutions (Table 3).
Discussion
•On average, online PEMs about PNBs, especially those by private institutions, have a readability level that exceeds the 6th-grade level recommended by the AMA [4].
•Overall, PEMs demonstrated low reliability and fair quality, with room for improvement by inclusion of references, authorship, and dates of recent updates.
•Websites addressing PNBs should create content that is reliable and tailored to the public’s educational level to address gaps in patient knowledge