[Readability of surgical informed consent in Spain]

Area of Science:

• Medical Ethics
• Health Literacy
• Surgical Patient Education

Background:

• Informed consent documents (IC) are crucial for patient autonomy in medical procedures.
• Assessing the readability of IC is essential to ensure patients can understand critical information before surgery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the readability of informed consent documents (IC) provided by various national surgical societies.
• To identify potential barriers to patient comprehension in surgical consent forms.

Main Methods:

• Collected 504 IC protocols from diverse surgical specialties in January 2012.
• Applied multiple readability indices including Flesch-Szigriszt, Huerta Fernández, Inflesz scale, and Gunning-Fog.
• Analyzed parameters such as word count, syllable count, phrase length, and various correlation indices.

Main Results:

• Overall readability was considered 'normal' by Flesch-Szigriszt but 'somewhat difficult' by the Inflesz scale.
• Significant differences in readability were observed across specialties, with Urology and Thoracic Surgery being less readable than Angiology and Vascular Surgery.
• No IC met the criteria for appropriate adult readability according to the Fernández-Huerta index, and Gunning-Fog indexes indicated poor readability for a general audience.

Conclusions:

• Informed consent documents from surgical societies generally lack adequate readability for patients.
• There is a critical need to improve the clarity and accessibility of surgical consent forms.
• The study recommends utilizing readability indexes during the development of informed consent documents to enhance patient understanding.