ArticleBMC public health2021
Quality and readability of web-based Arabic health information on COVID-19: an infodemiological study.
Article in BMC public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Assessment of the Arabic patient-centered online information about orthodontic pain: A quality and readability assessment.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Quality, readability, and transparency of Arabic online health information on temporomandibular disorders: An infodemiological analysis of 408 websites.Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences · 2026Article
- Article
- An infodemiological analysis of arabic online educational content on low back pain: Insights into quality and reliability.Journal of public health research · 2026Article
- Quality and readability of Turkish online patient information websites on benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Enhancing trustworthiness of Arabic online health information quality evaluation using an enhanced BERT architecture with PCA and ICA feature weighting.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Article
- Quality Assessment of Health Information on Social Media During a Public Health Crisis: Infodemiology Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Article
- Arabic web-based educational resources on iron deficiency anemia: an infodemiological study.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- An infodemiologic review of internet resources on dental hypersensitivity: A quality and readability assessment.PloS one · 2025Article
- Exploring online health information quality criteria on social media: a mixed method approach.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Article
- Arabic Web-Based Information on Oral Lichen Planus: Content Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Arabic websites assessment of irritable bowel syndrome: How trustworthy are they? A cross-sectional study.Health science reports · 2024Article
- Web-Based Educational Resources for Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Availability and Reliability.International journal of general medicine · 2024Article
- Assessment of Arabic Web-Based Knowledge About Clear Aligners: An Infodemiologic Study.Cureus · 2023Article
- Quality of web-based Arabic health information on dental implants: an infodemiological study.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Assessing knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward sexually transmitted infections among Baghdad undergraduate students for research-guided sexual health education.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation identification among Chinese residents during a regional outbreak.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Evaluation of the quality and accuracy of breast cancer knowledge among persian language websites.BMC health services research · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis study sought to assess the quality and readability of web-based Arabic health information on COVID-19.
methodsThree search engines were searched on 13 April 2020 for specific Arabic terms on COVID-19. The first 100 consecutive websites from each engine were analyzed for eligibility, which resulted in a sample of 36 websites. These websites were subjected to quality assessments using the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmarks tool, the DISCERN tool, and Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode) certification. The readability of the websites was assessed using an online readability calculator.
resultsAmong the 36 eligible websites, only one (2.7%) was HONcode certified. No website attained a high score based on the criteria of the DISCERN tool; the mean score of all websites was 31.5 ± 12.55. As regards the JAMA benchmarks results, a mean score of 2.08 ± 1.05 was achieved by the websites; however, only four (11.1%) met all the JAMA criteria. The average grade levels for readability were 7.2 ± 7.5, 3.3 ± 0.6 and 93.5 ± 19.4 for the Flesch Kincaid Grade Level, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, and Flesch Reading Ease scales, respectively.
conclusionAlmost all of the most easily accessible web-based Arabic health information on COVID-19 does not meet recognized quality standards regardless of the level of readability and ability to be understood by the general population of Arabic speakers.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.