An examination of the content of diabetes websites targeting Arabic speakers

Background: There has been an increase in the numbers of people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region seeking online information about diabetes, as the Internet is considered a helpful tool for finding information about disease prevention and treatment. It is important that the sources available are reliable, trustworthy and easily accessible. However, the quality and readability of such information is questionable. This study examines the content of Arabic diabetes websites and offers recommendations to improve engagement and access to health information.

Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional analysis approach to assess diabetes websites targeting Arabic speakers in the MENA countries. Google trends was utilized to reveal the top searched topics across the MENA region, which were used as search terms to identify the websites in search engines, resulting in the examination of 26 websites. The analysis combined automated tools with expert evaluation methods and involved five dimensions: quality, readability, engagement, popularity, and availability.

Results: Overall, the majority of the websites performed poorly in the five dimensions and thus require careful reassessment of their content, design, and readability; no website performed well in all dimensions. Only two websites (7.6%) were HONcode certified, and none of the websites achieved a high score in the DISCERN analysis. The readability scores indicated that most websites were above the recommended level of reading. The results also revealed that all websites had poor engagement. Half of the websites had good ranking, and 58% of the websites covered all of the target topics. Of the websites examined, the non-commercial and non-professional sites (classified as "others") seem to have greater readability, higher bounce rates and longer visit duration than the commercial sites.

Conclusions: The results from this study show a need for improving the content of diabetes information websites available to Arabic speakers. In order to develop websites that contain easy-to-read and understand high-quality information, collaboration between multiple stakeholders is necessary.