Nutrition guidance for cancer patients and survivors—A review of the websites of Irish healthcare and charitable organisations and cancer centres

Objective: To determine availability of nutrition information for cancer patients and survivors from Irish healthcare organisations, cancer charity and support groups and assess its quality and readability. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: The National Health Service Executive websites were searched, as were the sites of the ten largest cancer charities/support groups identified through the Benefacts website. An additional internet search was conducted to ensure no large organisations/support groups were missed (February 2019). Quality of nutrition content was assessed using an evidence-based checklist and readability assessed using two validated formulas. Results: Thirty-two websites were identified, five contained nutrition information for cancer patients (15.6%), and three for cancer survivors (9.3%). The quality of the nutrition content ranged from 19.5 to 29/40 (mean ± SD, 23.2 ± 3.2; median = 21, interquartile range (IQR) = 7). There was a lack of practical strategies for implementation. Only 40% of material had an acceptable readability level (sixth–seventh grade level). Readability scores (mean ± SD) were 68.5 ± 6.0 for Flesch Reading Ease Score and 7.8 ± 1.1 for Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level Score. Conclusion: There is limited nutrition information on Irish health and cancer websites and in particular very few tailored to cancer survivors. Irish health and cancer organisations should consider providing nutrition information that is easily accessible to all.