Original ArticleThe readability of American Academy of Pediatrics patient education brochures
Section snippets
Methods
This was a descriptive study of the readability of AAP patient education brochures.
Flesch-kincaid formula
Using the Flesch-Kincaid reading level formula, 55% of the AAP patient education brochures were found to be written at higher readability levels than generally recommended for the general public; only 41 of the 74 brochures had readability levels at the acceptable level of ≤8th grade. The mean readability level for all 74 brochures was grade 7.94 with this formula (range 5.7-11.7). When examined by decade of copyright, the mean readability levels for those developed or revised during the 1990s
Discussion
This study demonstrated that while some of the AAP patient education brochures have acceptable levels of readability as measured by the Flesch-Kincaid readability formula, more than half are written at higher than acceptable readability levels for the general public, no matter which of the two readability formulas were used for evaluation. When examined by decade of copyright, the brochures were found to have no significant differences in grade level by decade of copyright or revision. This
Clinical implications
Readability is a basic necessity for health education materials, for if the patient or family cannot read the information, they cannot comprehend it or follow its instructions. Clinical health professionals who distribute patient education materials to their patients should be aware of the issue of readability, and should know if the materials they use are readable by the population they serve. This is a challenge for providers, for there is no easy way for clinicians to merely look at patient
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Margaret Comerford Freda is Professor, Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY.