Readability of self-report clinical outcome measures

Because the validity of data obtained from self-report clinical outcome measures depends upon the ability of the client to comprehend the inventories, readability was assessed for five frequently employed measures: Beck Depression Inventory, Integra Outpatient Tracking Assessment, MOS 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey, Social Adjustment Scale-Self Report, and Symptoms Checklist-90-Revised. The Flesch Reading Ease (RE) formula and a Flesch abstraction formula were applied. The measures are generally shown to be useful for patients with an eighth or ninth grade education, suggesting that outcome researchers must choose only those measures appropriate to the educational background of their clients.