Assessment of quality, readability and endorsement of online information on WeChat official accounts for patients with rare neurological diseases: a cross-sectional study (Preprint)

Abstract

WeChat official account is one of the most commonly used social media platform for patients with rare neurological diseases to obtain knowledge on their treatment options. Yet, there still lacks a comprehensive assessment on the WeChat posts.

To assess the quality, readability and endorsement of online information about rare neurological diseases released by WeChat official accounts.

A four-stage methodological sampling technique was used in this cross-sectional study to identify articles related to the top-seven rare neurological diseases (with the largest hospitalized patients) in China during May to August 2019. The quality was independently scored by two researchers using DISCERN, while the readability and the endorsement were calculated through a Chinese readability formula and the like ratio respectively. All the three indices were then compared among different affiliation categories and different treatment types.

A total of 173 eligible articles were selected from 28 WeChat official accounts. For all articles, the mean (SD) DISCERN score was 30.27 (7.20; 95% CI, 29.19-31.35), only three of 173 articles (1.73%) achieved the good level. The mean (SD) score of readability was 10.07 (1.35; 95% CI, 9.88-10.27), which geared to the level 4 (undergraduate). The mean (SD) like ratio was 0.010 (0.015; 95% CI, 0.007-0.012), statistically different among affiliation categories (H = 31.915, P < .001) and treatment types (H = 14.829, P = .01). Articles on psychological intervention had the highest endorsement but the lowest quality. Articles related to traditional Chinese medicine got the lowest like ratio and the most difficult readability.

Our findings indicate that the accessible online information about rare neurological diseases released on WeChat official accounts varies by sources and is generally of poor quality. The information presented is obscure and might exceed the average education level of the public, which therefore limits it to be further diffused. Future efforts to improve the quality, readability and endorsement of online information on rare neurological diseases are needed.