Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07103, USA.
Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2012 Sep;147(3):466-71. doi: 10.1177/0194599812442783. Epub 2012 Apr 3.
Americans are increasingly turning to the Internet as a source of health care information. These online resources should be written at a level readily understood by the average American. This study evaluates the readability of online patient education information available from the American Academy of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) professional Web site using 7 different assessment tools that analyze the materials for reading ease and grade level of its target audience.
Analysis of Internet-based patient education material from the AAO-HNSF Web site.
Online patient education material from the AAO-HNSF was downloaded in January 2012 and assessed for level of readability using the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, SMOG grading, Coleman-Liau Index, Gunning-Fog Index, Raygor Readability Estimate graph, and Fry Readability graph. The text from each subsection was pasted as plain text into Microsoft Word document, and each subsection was subjected to readability analysis using the software package Readability Studio Professional Edition Version 2012.1.
All health care education material assessed is written between an 11th grade and graduate reading level and is considered "difficult to read" by the assessment scales.
Online patient education materials on the AAO-HNSF Web site are written above the recommended 6th grade level and may need to be revised to make them more easily understood by a broader audience.
越来越多的美国人开始将互联网作为获取医疗保健信息的来源。这些在线资源的文字表述应该易于普通美国民众理解。本研究采用 7 种不同的评估工具，评估美国耳鼻喉科学会-头颈外科学会基金会（AAO-HNSF）专业网站上提供的在线患者教育信息的可读性，这些工具可分析阅读的简易程度和目标受众的年级水平。
分析 AAO-HNSF 网站上的基于互联网的患者教育材料。
下载 AAO-HNSF 网站上的在线患者教育材料，并使用弗莱什阅读容易度、弗莱什-金凯德年级水平、简易阅读评估、科尔曼-廖氏指数、冈宁-福格阅读指数、雷戈尔阅读估计图和弗莱阅读图等 7 种不同的评估工具来评估其阅读的简易程度。将每个部分的文本粘贴到 Microsoft Word 文档中，然后使用 Readability Studio Professional Edition Version 2012.1 软件包对每个部分的文本进行可读性分析。
所有评估的医疗保健教育材料的阅读水平均在 11 年级至研究生水平之间，且根据评估标准，这些材料都被认为“难以阅读”。
AAO-HNSF 网站上的在线患者教育材料的书写水平超过了推荐的 6 年级水平，可能需要进行修改，以便更广泛的受众群体能够更容易地理解。
