Penile cancer is rare, and patients increasingly rely on the internet for health information. On April 1, 2025, we conducted a cross-sectional evaluation of the quality and readability of the top 100 Google search results; 71 websites were included in the analysis. Overall quality was fair, with a mean DISCERN score of 41.01 ± 13.67, and transparency was limited, with a mean Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) benchmark score of 1.69 ± 1.02. Readability was generally suboptimal: the mean Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score was 52.06 ± 12.05 (fairly difficult), and the Gunning Fog Index and Simplified Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) scores (8.48 ± 2.43 and 7.19 ± 2.02, respectively) indicated reading demands above the recommended sixth-grade level. Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn's post hoc tests showed significant differences in DISCERN scores across affiliations, with non-profit websites scoring higher than commercial websites. FRE also differed by affiliation (p = 0.016), although post hoc comparisons were not significant, and sensitivity analyses supported the robustness of these findings. Correlation analysis demonstrated a strong association between DISCERN and JAMA scores (r = 0.662; p < 0.001). These findings support improved disclosure of authorship and update dates and simplification of language for patient education.
International journal of impotence research. 2026 Apr 29 [Epub ahead of print]
Juncheng Ma, Ming Wang, Qiushi Liu, Zihang Chen, Renliang Li, Yuxi Huang, Xiansheng Zhang
Department of Urology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China., Department of Urology, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230601, China., Department of Urology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, China. .