The Impact of Medical Terminology on Readability of Patient Education Materials

Abstract

Most health-related literature is written above the reading ability of the lay audience; however, no studies to date have identified the impact of medical terms on readability of health education materials. The purpose of this study was to identify whether there was a change in calculated reading levels of patient education brochures after medical terms were removed from analysis passages. The reading levels of 5 patient education brochures were analyzed before and after removal of medical terms, using both the Fry and Simple Measure of Gobbledegook (SMOG) readability formulas. Results indicated that the reading levels for all brochures were significantly lower after removal of medical terminology, but they remained above the 5th to 6h grade level recommended by health education experts. Findings hold implications for healthcare professionals in relation to the development and evaluation of patient education materials.

The Readability of Online Patient Resources for Skin Cancer Treatment

“…The dots represent each individual website with the average number of sentences per 100 words plotted against the average number of syllables per 100 words. All can be seen to be over the 6th grade level reading age after removal of medical terminology, as well as there being on average between 3.2 and 4.3 syllables per medical term [35]. Another finding was that the medical terms that were used were generally poorly explained, with one brochure only explaining 9% of the included medical terms.…”

“…This is likely to be one reason why the readability scores were so poor in this study. A study of printed patient information leaflets from a family medicine clinic in the USA looked at the difference in readability scores before and after removing medical terminology [35]. It was demonstrated using the Fry and SMOG formulae that there was a significant reduction in Readability Index and Linsear Write Formula).…”

Patients and jargon: are we speaking the same language?

“…In 2007, Sand-Jecklin [5] analyzed written education materials using the Fry and Simple Measure of Gobbledegook readability formulas. The author showed that removing medical terminology increased the readability of the written materials.…”

Readability, Presentation and Quality of Allergy-related Patient Information Leaflets; A Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Study

“…A further methodological refinement would have been to re-evaluate the readability of the leaflets omitting common polysyllabic words associated with the illness and that would be very familiar to the reader, for example words such as allergy, anaphylaxis or urticaria. Removal from the text before scoring of complex, but frequently used, medical terminology has been associated with significant improvements in readability scores [28].…”