How readable are the hospital information leaflets available to elderly patients?

Area of Science:

• Health Communication
• Patient Education Materials
• Medical Writing

Background:

• Effective communication of health information is crucial for patient understanding and adherence.
• Assessing the readability of hospital information leaflets is essential for ensuring accessibility to diverse patient populations.
• Previous studies have highlighted challenges in patient comprehension of medical documents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the readability and layout of hospital information leaflets.
• To compare the clarity of hospital leaflets with external publications.
• To identify areas for improvement in patient education materials.

Main Methods:

• Assessed the readability of 70 hospital information leaflets using the Gunning Fog (GF) readability test.
• Evaluated leaflet layout, including typeface, print style, and illustration effectiveness.
• Compared leaflet scores with those of outside publications and Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) recommendations.

Main Results:

• Most leaflets had satisfactory reading scores, and illustrations were generally effective.
• Seven (10%) leaflets scored 14 or higher on the GF test, comparable to the British Medical Journal.
• Only 12% (17%) of leaflets met RNIB recommendations for typeface size, with scores of 12+ potentially being incomprehensible.

Conclusions:

• While many hospital leaflets are readable, a significant portion presents comprehension challenges, especially for elderly patients.
• The Gunning Fog test is a reliable tool for assessing document readability.
• Improvements in language complexity and typeface are needed to enhance patient understanding of hospital information.