Advancing Patient Education in Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension: The Promise of Large Language Models

We evaluated the performance of 3 large language models (LLMs) in generating patient education materials (PEMs) and enhancing the readability of prewritten PEMs on idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH).

This cross-sectional comparative study compared 3 LLMs, ChatGPT-3.5, ChatGPT-4, and Google Bard, for their ability to generate PEMs on IIH using 3 prompts. Prompt A (control prompt): "Can you write a patient-targeted health information handout on idiopathic intracranial hypertension that is easily understandable by the average American?", Prompt B (modifier statement + control prompt): "Given patient education materials are recommended to be written at a 6th-grade reading level, using the SMOG readability formula, can you write a patient-targeted health information handout on idiopathic intracranial hypertension that is easily understandable by the average American?", and Prompt C: "Given patient education materials are recommended to be written at a 6th-grade reading level, using the SMOG readability formula, can you rewrite the following text to a 6th-grade reading level: [insert text]." We compared generated and rewritten PEMs, along with the first 20 googled eligible PEMs on IIH, on readability (Simple Measure of Gobbledygook [SMOG] and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level [FKGL]), quality (DISCERN and Patient Education Materials Assessment tool [PEMAT]), and accuracy (Likert misinformation scale).

Generated PEMs were of high quality, understandability, and accuracy (median DISCERN score ≥4, PEMAT understandability ≥70%, Likert misinformation scale = 1). Only ChatGPT-4 was able to generate PEMs at the specified 6th-grade reading level (SMOG: 5.5 ± 0.6, FKGL: 5.6 ± 0.7). Original published PEMs were rewritten to below a 6th-grade reading level with Prompt C, without a decrease in quality, understandability, or accuracy only by ChatGPT-4 (SMOG: 5.6 ± 0.6, FKGL: 5.7 ± 0.8, p < 0.001, DISCERN ≥4, Likert misinformation = 1).

In conclusion, LLMs, particularly ChatGPT-4, can produce high-quality, readable PEMs on IIH. They can also serve as supplementary tools to improve the readability of prewritten PEMs while maintaining quality and accuracy.