Trochanteric bursitis information on the internet; can we trust the information presented?

World J Orthop. 2020 Oct 18;11(10):473-474. doi: 10.5312/wjo.v11.i10.473.

Abstract

Trochanteric bursitis is one of the most common causes of lateral hip pain in adults. The prevalence of unilateral trochanteric bursitis is 15.0% in women and 8.5% in men. Access to internet based information has increased dramatically and health related information is now one of the most popular searches in online activity, despite this the quality of information can vary. The objective of this paper is to examine the quality and readability of internet based information of trochanteric bursitis. Overall, we have found a high variability among not only the quality but also the readability of information published. Websites that appeared first on each search engine for trochanteric bursitis did not necessarily score better, demonstrating the importance of providing patients with high quality resources. Future articles should use more critical appraisal tools in order to provide the reader with more high quality and readable information.

Keywords: DISCERN; Flesh Reading Ease; Internet; Journal of American Medical Association; Quality; Readability.