A Health Communication Assessment of Web-based Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patient Education Materials

Area of Science:

• Health Communication
• Patient Education
• Sleep Medicine

Background:

• The current obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) care pathway is fragmented, relying heavily on patient engagement, leading to care delays.
• These delays disproportionately impact racial and ethnic minorities, highlighting disparities in OSA management.
• Accessible patient education materials (PEMs) are needed to enhance OSA awareness and treatment adherence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the understandability, accessibility, actionability, and readability of web-based PEMs for OSA.
• To identify gaps in current OSA patient education resources.
• To inform the development of more effective OSA patient education materials.

Main Methods:

• Engaged patients, clinicians, and advocates to identify 20 web-based OSA PEMs.
• Assessed PEMs using the CDC Clear Communication Index (CCI), Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT), and readability scores (SMOG, Flesch-Kincaid).
• Evaluated understandability, actionability, and reading grade level against established benchmarks.

Main Results:

• No PEMs met the CCI benchmark of 90%; scores ranged from 21.4 to 85.7%.
• Only 15% of PEMs met benchmarks for both understandability and actionability.
• Readability levels varied widely (5th-15th grade), with only 5% meeting the recommended 6th-grade level.

Conclusions:

• Most web-based OSA PEMs do not meet recommended standards for clear communication and health literacy.
• A significant gap exists between the complexity of OSA materials and average patient health literacy.
• Practitioners and researchers should prioritize health communication best practices in designing future OSA PEMs.