When synonyms are not enough: Optimal parenthetical insertion for text simplification.

Area of Science:

• Health Literacy
• Medical Communication
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Increasing patient use of the internet for health queries necessitates simplified medical information.
• Multi-word explanations are needed for medical terms lacking simple synonyms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the optimal formulation for adding explanatory content as parenthetical expressions to simplify medical terms.
• To evaluate the impact of different parenthetical explanation strategies on text comprehension and reading efficiency.

Main Methods:

• Two user studies were conducted: Study 1 (N=260) focused on single difficult terms, examining text type, content type, explanation difficulty, and term position.
• Study 2 (N=116) focused on lists with multiple difficult terms.
• User perceptions of difficulty, actual difficulty, and reading time were measured.

Main Results:

• For difficult text, enclosing the difficult term in parentheses was most effective.
• For simple text, enclosing the explanation in parentheses proved most beneficial.
• Parenthetical insertion significantly simplified text, even with multiple difficult terms.

Conclusions:

• Parenthetical explanations are a viable strategy for simplifying medical text for online health information.
• The optimal placement of parenthetical content depends on the text's inherent difficulty and the nature of the explanation.
• Effective simplification of medical information can improve patient understanding and engagement with health resources.