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A systematic review of patient information leaflets for hypertension
1Department of General Practice, Public and Occupational Health, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK.
Insights
Patient information leaflets on hypertension offer high-quality guidance, though some fall short of adequate standards. Healthcare professionals should critically evaluate resources to ensure patients receive the best available hypertension information.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Health
- Medical Information Dissemination
- Patient Education
Background:
- Patient information leaflets (PILs) are crucial for disseminating health information.
- Assessing the quality of PILs for hypertension is essential for effective patient management.
- Previous evaluations of health-related PILs have highlighted variability in quality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and assess the quality of patient information leaflets on hypertension available in the UK.
- To determine the extent to which current hypertension PILs meet recognized standards for content, readability, and design.
- To identify best practices in patient information for hypertension management.
Main Methods:
- A standardized, systematic rating of 61 UK-based patient information leaflets for hypertension.
- Leaflets were evaluated using a pre-determined rating scale assessing content, writing style, readability, and design.
- Scores were allocated based on recognized criteria to determine overall quality.
Main Results:
- Sixty-one hypertension leaflets were reviewed, with 42 sourced online and 19 from other channels.
- Leaflet scores ranged from 28 to 70, with a maximum possible score of 84.
- Top-scoring leaflets were produced by Boeringer Ingelheim for the British Hypertension Society and Greenlines Publishing.
- While most leaflets were readable and used appropriate language, few contained the full spectrum of essential information.
Conclusions:
- High-quality hypertension information is accessible to patients, but some leaflets do not meet adequate standards.
- Healthcare professionals should be knowledgeable about quality information criteria and critically assess resources provided to patients.
- Clinics and surgeries should offer a curated selection of the best available hypertension leaflets to empower patient choice.
Objective:
To review patient information leaflets on hypertension to determine the quality of information currently available to patients.
Design And Setting:
A standardised systematic rating of patient information leaflets for hypertension in the UK.
Main Outcome Measure:
A quality score per leaflet based on a pre-determined rating scale. using recognised criteria with marks allocated for content, writing style, readability and design.
Results:
Sixty-one leaflets were received, 42 from the Internet and 19 from other sources. Leaflets could achieve a maximum of 84 points. Scores ranged from 30 to 70 for non-Internet leaflets and 28 to 67 for Internet leaflets. Leaflets produced by Boeringer Ingelheim for the British Hypertension Society and Greenlines Publishing (with a medical education grant from Knoll Ltd) scored highest overall. A detailed analysis of the non-Internet leaflets showed that few leaflets contained the full range of information considered important though most should be readable by the majority of the adult population and are written using appropriate language and typeface.
Conclusion:
High quality information is available for patients, though some leaflets fall below an adequate standard. Professionals providing advice to patients should have some knowledge of what constitutes good quality information and be critical of the resources they use. Ideally surgeries and clinics should stock a range of the best information available so that patients can chose the leaflet most appropriate to their needs.