Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

[The legibility of written informed consent forms]

P Simón Lorda1, I M Barrio Cantalejo, L Concheiro Carro

  • 1Instituto de Medicina Legal, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Galicia.

Medicina Clinica
|October 26, 1996
PubMed
Summary

Spanish informed consent forms require improved readability. A new method combining Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Sentence Complexity, and Integrated Readability Level (LEGIN) can assess and enhance patient comprehension.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

[Law of autonomy of patients].

Atencion primaria·2003
Same author

[Can patients read what we want them to read? Analysis of the readability of printed materials for health education].

Atencion primaria·2003
Same author

[Measurement of the legibility of written texts. Correlation between the Flesch manual method and computer methods].

Atencion primaria·2003
Same author

[Patients' capacity for decision making].

Medicina clinica·2001
Same author

[Informed consent].

Medicina clinica·2001
Same author

[Ethical aspects of medical prescription and our relationship with the pharmaceutical industry].

Atencion primaria·2000

Area of Science:

  • Medical writing and patient communication.
  • Health literacy assessment.
  • Informed consent process optimization.

Context:

  • In Spain, a lack of standardized tools hindered the evaluation of informed consent form legibility.
  • Assessing patient understanding is crucial for ethical medical practice.

Purpose:

  • To evaluate the readability of informed consent forms in Spain.
  • To establish a reliable method for assessing text legibility for patients.

Summary:

  • This study analyzed 10 diverse texts, 8 journals, and 16 informed consent forms using Grammatik 6.0 (Word Perfect 6.1).
  • Readability was assessed via Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Sentence Complexity, and an Integrated Readability Level (LEGIN).
  • Optimal readability requires Flesch-Kincaid > 10, Sentence Complexity < 40, and LEGIN > 70. Only 5 consent forms met the LEGIN criteria.

Impact:

  • The Grammatik utility, complemented by LEGIN, provides a sensitive and specific measure for readability analysis.
  • Enhancing the readability of informed consent forms is essential for upholding the ethical quality of the informed consent process.
  • This research offers a practical framework for improving patient comprehension of medical documents in Spain.

Related Experiment Videos