Evaluating the Readability, Credibility, and Quality of… : JAAOS – Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
plasty. Methods: We queried “Google,” “Yahoo,” and “Bing” using the term “reemplazo de rodilla” (knee replacement in Spanish) and extracted the top 50 websites per search engine. Websites were categorized by information source (physician/community hospital, university/academic, other) and presence of HONcode certification. Information was assessed for readability (Fernández-Huerta formula), credibility (Journal of the American Medical Association benchmark criteria), and quality (Brief DISCERN tool); scores were compared between the categories. Results: A total of 77 unique websites were included (40.3% physician/community hospital, 35.1% university/academic). The median readability score was 59.4 (10th to 12th-grade reading level); no websites achieved the recommended level of ≤6th grade. The median Journal of the American Medical Association benchmark score was 2 (interquartile range 1 to 3), with only 7.8% of websites meeting all criteria. The median Brief DISCERN score was 16 (inte
