Evaluating content quality of medical tourism website: Thailand vs. the United States

Medical tourism is an industry related to healthcare, travel, and the economy. Many developing countries actively promote medical tourism to boost their economies. The importance of medical tourism to the host economy is evident in the value of foreign exchange inflows and economic output growth. Additionally, the growth of medical tourism boosts employment opportunities in the healthcare sector and related industries. Medical tourism, also known as health tourism or medical travel, is a rapidly growing global industry, where individuals travel to other countries or regions to receive medical, dental, or surgical treatment. Patients can access healthcare services that relate to their needs through medical websites. It is essential for international patients to access medical information that allows them to understand and trust medical destinations for treating their illnesses or undergoing other medical procedures. When users visit the site, they are usually seeking information about a medical condition, symptoms they are experiencing, a service, or other details. Providing content about the procedures offered and services available is an effective way to deliver this information. Providing users with the information that they’re looking for in a clear and easy way can help keep users on your site and increase conversions, such as leads or appointments. This study aim to evaluate the quality of content on medical tourism website including factors are readability and completeness of content. To evaluate the readability scores of medical tourism websites from Thailand and the United States using standardized readability formulas. Readability is parameter to evaluate the text for understandable. This study used the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE), the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), and Gunning Fog Index (GFI) as assessment for reliable readability in context of online health information. These specific readability tools were selected because they are commonly used to evaluate text readability, especially in healthcare contexts. The analysis of scores from each tool revealed that Thailand has mean score on FRE, GFI, FKGL, SMOG is 52.05, 12.11, 8.94, and 8.75 respectively. The United States has mean score on FRE, GFI, FKGL, SMOG is 52.36, 12.33, 9.20, and 9.01 respectively. most health information is written at a level higher than the readability recommended by The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is health materials be written at a grade 6-7 reading level to ensure they are accessible to a broad audience. For the completeness of content resultes indecated that Thailand medical tourism websites tend to provide more information on winder of topics compared to the United States. This show that Thailand attracts international patients by provide the potential concerns and needs information In contrast, the United States websites may lean more on their established reputation and quality of care, but detailed informational content is less necessary.