Badarudeen Sameer, Sabharwal Sanjeev
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Doctor's Office Center, 90 Bergen Street, Suite 7300, Newark, NJ 07103, USA.
J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2008 Jan;90(1):199-204. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.G.00347.
While experts recommend that the readability of patient education materials should be less than the sixth grade level, the available information pertaining to orthopaedic diseases may be excessively complex for some to read and comprehend. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level is the most widely used tool to evaluate the readability score of a given text, with a lower grade level suggesting easier readability. The goal of our study was to assess the readability of pediatric orthopaedic patient education materials that were developed by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) and were accessible to the general public through the Internet.
All articles from the "Children" section of the patient education library, "Your Orthopaedic Connection," on the AAOS web site and the "Parent/Patient" section on the POSNA web site were identified. The Flesch-Kincaid grade level of each article was determined with use of Microsoft Office Word software. The mean grade levels of articles that were available in 2001 were compared with those accessible in 2007.
Fifty-seven unique articles were available in 2007 on both web sites compared with twenty-five articles available in 2001. The readability score of only one (2%) of the currently available articles was less than sixth grade level. The mean Flesch-Kincaid grade level of the currently available articles was 8.9 compared with 8.7 for the articles available in 2001 (p = 0.71).
Our findings suggest that most of the pediatric orthopaedic patient education materials available on the AAOS and POSNA web sites have readability scores that may be too high, making comprehension difficult for a substantial portion of the United States population.
虽然专家建议患者教育材料的可读性应低于六年级水平，但一些有关骨科疾病的现有信息可能过于复杂，难以阅读和理解。弗莱施-金凯德年级水平是评估给定文本可读性分数最广泛使用的工具，年级水平越低表明可读性越容易。我们研究的目的是评估由美国骨科医师学会（AAOS）和北美小儿骨科学会（POSNA）编写的、公众可通过互联网获取的小儿骨科患者教育材料的可读性。
确定了AAOS网站患者教育库“儿童”部分“您的骨科联系”中的所有文章以及POSNA网站“家长/患者”部分中的所有文章。使用Microsoft Office Word软件确定每篇文章的弗莱施-金凯德年级水平。将2001年可用文章的平均年级水平与2007年可获取文章的平均年级水平进行比较。
2007年两个网站上共有57篇独特的文章，而2001年有25篇文章。目前可用的文章中只有一篇（2%）的可读性分数低于六年级水平。目前可用文章的平均弗莱施-金凯德年级水平为8.9，而2001年文章的平均年级水平为8.7（p = 0.71）。
我们的研究结果表明，AAOS和POSNA网站上提供的大多数小儿骨科患者教育材料的可读性分数可能过高，使得美国相当一部分人口难以理解。
