{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,11,1]],"date-time":"2026-11-01T22:34:16Z","timestamp":1793572456248,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,10]],"date-time":"2026-04-10T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1775779200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"\n Background<\/jats:title>\n Patient-facing large language model (LLM) outputs for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) must be decision-relevant, readable, and verifiable.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Methods<\/jats:title>\n \n In a cross-sectional benchmark using a guideline-derived question set, five publicly available LLMs provided answers to 20 single-intent patient IBD questions, mapped to prespecified decision-critical domains across the care pathway (100 model\u2013question responses). Queries were conducted from January 17\u201324, 2026,\n via<\/jats:italic>\n official web interfaces under default settings (privacy mode; new chat per prompt). Two blinded raters evaluated informational quality and completeness (using DISCERN, EQIP, and the Global Quality Scale), transparency proxies (based on JAMA benchmark criteria), and readability through the Automated Readability Index, Flesch Reading Ease, Gunning Fog Index, Flesch\u2013Kincaid Grade Level, Coleman\u2013Liau Index, and SMOG. Overall differences were assessed using within-question paired Friedman tests with Holm adjustment, and effect size was quantified with Kendall's W.\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Results<\/jats:title>\n \n Interrater agreement was high [DISCERN ICC(A,1) = 0.842; EQIP ICC(A,1) = 0.760; GQS weighted \u03ba = 0.812; JAMA weighted \u03ba = 0.936]. Median DISCERN scores ranged from 43.5 to 57.5, and EQIP scores ranged from 67.5 to 77.5, while transparency remained limited (JAMA median 0\u20131\/4). Readability consistently failed to meet patient targets, with grade-level indices exceeding sixth grade and Flesch Reading Ease medians ranging from 15 to 36 (compared to a target of \u226580 for \u201ceasy\u201d readability). All 10 outcomes varied significantly across models (Holm-adjusted\n P<\/jats:italic>\n &lt; 0.001;\n W<\/jats:italic>\n = 0.238\u20130.702).\n <\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>\n \n Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n Under default settings, publicly available LLMs exhibit variable informational quality for IBD but consistently poor transparency and readability. Patient-facing deployment should mandate provenance, currency, and disclosure fields, as well as outputs targeted to appropriate grade levels.<\/jats:p>\n <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1810358","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,10]],"date-time":"2026-04-10T05:59:59Z","timestamp":1775800799000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":8,"title":["Benchmarking public large language model responses to patient-facing inflammatory bowel disease questions: informational quality, transparency proxies, and readability"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Xiaoyue","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University","place":["Haikou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chengguang","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University","place":["Haikou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Haiyang","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University","place":["Haikou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jinjiao","family":"Guo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University","place":["Haikou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xueting","family":"Fu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University","place":["Haikou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Feihu","family":"Bai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Hainan Medical University","place":["Haikou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,10]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1225","DOI":"10.14309\/ajg.0000000000003465","article-title":"ACG Clinical guideline: management of Crohn's disease in adults","volume":"120","author":"Lichtenstein","year":"2025","journal-title":"Am J Gastroenterol."},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"s1","DOI":"10.1136\/gutjnl-2024-334395corr1","article-title":"British Society of Gastroenterology guidelines on inflammatory bowel disease in adults: 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