Readability of patient education materials

Area of Science:

• Health communication
• Medical writing
• Health literacy

Background:

• Patient education materials are crucial for health literacy.
• Assessing the readability of these materials is essential for effective patient understanding.
• Existing readability assessment tools may vary in their applicability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the reading levels of patient education materials from various sources.
• To compare the effectiveness of three common readability tests: Fry Readability Graph, Gunning Fog Index, and McLaughlin SMOG Grading Formula.
• To evaluate the correlation between these different readability assessment methods.

Main Methods:

• Samples of patient education materials were collected from public foundations, pharmaceutical manufacturers, hospitals, and commercial sources.
• Three distinct readability tests were applied to assess the reading level of the collected materials.
• Correlation coefficients were calculated using linear regression to compare the results of the three readability formulas.

Main Results:

• Average reading levels ranged from grade 8.0 (foundation-sponsored) to 9.9 (pharmaceutical manufacturers).
• These average reading levels exceed the estimated reading level of the general American public.
• The three readability formulas demonstrated poor correlation with each other, indicating significant variability in their assessments.

Conclusions:

• Current patient education materials may present a barrier to understanding for a significant portion of the public.
• No single readability formula may be universally appropriate for evaluating all health-related materials.
• It is recommended to test educational materials for both readability and comprehension in target populations before widespread dissemination.