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Patient education materials: are they readable?

S T Stephens1

  • 1Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital, Ashland, KY.

Oncology Nursing Forum
|January 1, 1992
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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Patient education materials are often too difficult for adults to understand, potentially impacting self-care after hospital discharge. This study highlights the reading level gap in cancer patient education resources.

Area of Science:

  • Health Literacy
  • Patient Education
  • Oncology Nursing

Background:

  • The trend of discharging patients
  • quicker and sicker
  • limits adequate patient education for self-care. Printed materials are crucial for reinforcing hospital-based education. Cancer patient education faces challenges with material accessibility.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze the discrepancy between adult reading levels and the readability of common patient education materials.
  • To highlight the implications of this gap for patient self-care and health outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • Review of popular patient education publications for cancer patients.
  • Assessment of reading levels of these materials using established readability formulas.
  • Comparison of material reading levels against average adult reading proficiency.

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Main Results:

  • The average adult reading level is between the fifth and eighth grades.
  • Reviewed patient education materials typically fall between the eighth and 12th-grade reading levels.
  • A significant gap exists, with most materials written above the average adult's comprehension level.

Conclusions:

  • Current printed patient education materials, particularly for cancer patients, are often written at a reading level too high for the average adult.
  • This readability gap may impede patients' ability to understand and implement self-care instructions post-discharge.
  • Readability assessment and adjustment of patient education materials are critical for improving health literacy and patient outcomes.