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Investigating the Readability and Linguistic, Psychological, and Emotional Characteristics of Digital Dementia Information Written in the English Language: Multitrait-Multimethod Text Analysis.

Margi EngineerSushant KotEmma Dixon
Published in: JMIR formative research (2023)
Our findings indicate that there is an abundance of digital dementia information written in English that is targeted at people with dementia, but this information is not readable by a general audience. This is problematic considering that people with <12 years of education are at a higher risk of developing dementia. Further, our findings demonstrate that digital dementia information written in English has a negative tone, which may be a contributing factor to the mental health crisis many people with dementia face after receiving a diagnosis. Therefore, we call for content creators to lower readability scores to make the information more accessible to a general audience and to focus their efforts on providing information in a way that does not perpetuate overly negative narratives of dementia.
Keyphrases
  • health information
  • mild cognitive impairment
  • cognitive impairment
  • mental health
  • healthcare
  • social media
  • quality improvement
  • drug delivery
  • depressive symptoms