D'Alessandro D M, Kingsley P, Johnson-West J
Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Iowa, 200 Hawkins Dr, Iowa City, IA 52242-1009, USA.
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001 Jul;155(7):807-12. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.155.7.807.
Literacy is a national and international problem. Studies have shown the readability of adult and pediatric patient education materials to be too high for average adults. Materials should be written at the 8th-grade level or lower.
To determine the general readability of pediatric patient education materials designed for adults on the World Wide Web (WWW).
GeneralPediatrics.com (http://www.generalpediatrics.com) is a digital library serving the medical information needs of pediatric health care providers, patients, and families. Documents from 100 different authoritative Web sites designed for laypersons were evaluated using a built-in computer software readability formula (Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid reading levels) and hand calculation methods (Fry Formula and SMOG methods). Analysis of variance and paired t tests determined significance.
Eighty-nine documents constituted the final sample; they covered a wide spectrum of pediatric topics. The overall Flesch Reading Ease score was 57.0. The overall mean Fry Formula was 12.0 (12th grade, 0 months of schooling) and SMOG was 12.2. The overall Flesch-Kincaid grade level was significantly lower (P<.0001), at a mean of 7.1, when compared with the other 2 methods. All author and institution groups had an average reading level above 10.6 by the Fry Formula and SMOG methods.
Pediatric patient education materials on the WWW are not written at an appropriate reading level for the average adult. We propose that a practical reading level and how it was determined be included on all patient education materials on the WWW for general guidance in material selection. We discuss suggestions for improved readability of patient education materials.
读写能力是一个国内和国际层面的问题。研究表明，成人及儿科患者教育资料的可读性对于普通成年人来说过高。资料应以八年级及以下水平编写。
确定万维网上为成年人设计的儿科患者教育资料的总体可读性。
GeneralPediatrics.com（http://www.generalpediatrics.com）是一个数字图书馆，满足儿科医疗保健提供者、患者及其家庭的医疗信息需求。使用内置的计算机软件可读性公式（弗莱什易读性和弗莱什-金凯德阅读等级）和手工计算方法（弗莱公式和烟雾法）对来自100个不同面向外行人士的权威网站的文档进行评估。方差分析和配对t检验确定显著性。
89份文档构成最终样本；它们涵盖了广泛的儿科主题。总体弗莱什易读性得分为57.0。总体平均弗莱公式为12.0（十二年级，0个月受教育时间），烟雾法为12.2。与其他两种方法相比，总体弗莱什-金凯德年级水平显著更低（P<0.0001），平均为7.1。通过弗莱公式和烟雾法，所有作者和机构组的平均阅读水平都高于10.6。
万维网上的儿科患者教育资料的编写阅读水平对于普通成年人来说不合适。我们建议在万维网上的所有患者教育资料中都应包含一个实际阅读水平及其确定方式，以便在资料选择时提供总体指导。我们讨论了提高患者教育资料可读性的建议。
