Readability of Spine-Related Patient Education Materials From Subspecialty Organization and Spine Practitioner Websites
- 1 December 2009
- journal article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Spine
- Vol. 34 (25), 2826-2831
- https://doi.org/10.1097/brs.0b013e3181b4bb0c
Abstract
Analysis of spine-related websites available to the general public. To assess the readability of spine-related patient educational materials available on professional society and individual surgeon or practice based websites. The Internet has become a valuable source of patient education material. A significant percentage of patients, however, find this Internet based information confusing. Healthcare experts recommend that the readability of patient education material be less than the sixth grade level. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level is the most widely used method to evaluate the readability score of textual material, with lower scores suggesting easier readability. We conducted an Internet search of all patient education documents on the North American Spine Society (NASS), American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS), the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS), and a sample of 10 individual surgeon or practice based websites. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level of each article was calculated using widely available Microsoft Office Word software. The mean grade level of articles on the various professional society and individual/practice based websites were compared. A total of 121 articles from the various websites were available and analyzed. All 4 categories of websites had mean Flesch-Kincaid grade levels greater than 10. Only 3 articles (2.5%) were found to be at or below the sixth grade level, the recommended readability level for adult patients in the United States. There were no significant differences among the mean Flesch-Kincaid grade levels from the AAOS, NASS, AANS, and practice-based web-sites (P = 0.065, ANOVA). Our findings suggest that most of the Spine-related patient education materials on professional society and practice-based websites have readability scores that may be too high, making comprehension difficult for a substantial portion of the United States adult population.Keywords
This publication has 28 references indexed in Scilit:
- A Systematic Review of Readability and Comprehension Instruments Used for Print and Web-Based Cancer InformationHealth Education & Behavior, 2006
- Analysis of stroke patients’ and carers’ reading ability and the content and design of written materials: Recommendations for improving written stroke informationPatient Education and Counseling, 2006
- Reliability Analysis for Digital Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis MeasurementsJournal of Spinal Disorders & Techniques, 2005
- Health LiteracyJournal of Infusion Nursing, 2005
- Readability of patient education materials: implications for clinical practiceApplied Nursing Research, 1996
- Informed Consent for Medical Research: Common Discrepancies and ReadabilityAcademic Emergency Medicine, 1996
- The use of readability formulas in health carePsychology, Health & Medicine, 1996
- Informed ConsentNeurosurgery, 1992
- Patient Reading Ability: An Overlooked Problem in Health CareSouthern Medical Journal, 1991
- On the Readability of Surgical Consent FormsThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1980