Department of Surgery, Weston General Hospital, Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, Avon, UK.
Int J Clin Pract. 2010 Dec;64(13):1824-31. doi: 10.1111/j.1742-1241.2010.02408.x.
Patient information leaflets (PILs) remain the most frequently used sources of medical information. There is a concern that the reading age of these leaflets may exceed patient comprehension, thus negating their beneficial effect. The 'Flesch Reading Ease' and the 'Flesch-Kincaid grade level' are established methods for providing reliable and reproducible scores of readability.
All available hospital PILs (171) were assessed and divided into 21 departments. Microsoft Word was used to provide Flesch and Flesch-Kincaid readability statistics and compared against the national reading age and the recommended level for provision of medical information.
The average Flesch readability of all of the hospital's PILs is 60, with a Flesch-Kincaid grade of 7.8 (12-13 years old). There is considerable variation in the average readability between departments (Flesch readability 43.8-76.9, Flesch-Kincaid 5.4-10.2). The average scores of two departments have PILs scores suitable for patient information.
Although our PILs were well laid out and easy to read, the majority would have exceeded patient comprehension. The current advice for provision of NHS information does not highlight the importance of a recommended reading level when designing a PIL. Potentially a wide group of patients are being excluded from the benefits of a PIL.
患者信息传单（PIL）仍然是最常使用的医疗信息来源。人们担心这些传单的阅读年龄可能超过患者的理解能力，从而否定了它们的有益效果。“弗莱什阅读容易度”和“弗莱什-金凯德年级水平”是提供可靠和可重复的可读性评分的既定方法。
评估了所有可用的医院 PIL（171），并将其分为 21 个部门。使用 Microsoft Word 提供弗莱什和弗莱什-金凯德的可读性统计数据，并与全国阅读年龄和提供医疗信息的建议水平进行比较。
医院所有 PIL 的平均弗莱什可读性为 60，弗莱什-金凯德等级为 7.8（12-13 岁）。各部门之间的平均可读性差异很大（弗莱什可读性 43.8-76.9，弗莱什-金凯德 5.4-10.2）。有两个部门的平均分数适合提供患者信息。
尽管我们的 PIL 布局合理，易于阅读，但大多数 PIL 的阅读年龄都会超过患者的理解能力。目前提供国民保健制度信息的建议在设计 PIL 时没有强调推荐阅读水平的重要性。可能有很大一部分患者被排除在 PIL 的益处之外。
