Agarwal Nitin, Feghhi Daniel P, Gupta Raghav, Hansberry David R, Quinn John C, Heary Robert F, Goldstein Ira M
Departments of 1 Neurological Surgery and.
J Neurosurg Spine. 2014 Sep;21(3):468-74. doi: 10.3171/2014.5.SPINE13600. Epub 2014 Jun 13.
The Internet has become a widespread source for disseminating health information to large numbers of people. Such is the case for spine surgery as well. Given the complexity of spinal surgeries, an important point to consider is whether these resources are easily read and understood by most Americans. The average national reading grade level has been estimated to be at about the 7th grade. In the present study the authors strove to assess the readability of open spine surgery resources and minimally invasive spine surgery resources to offer suggestions to help improve the readability of patient resources.
Online patient education resources were downloaded in 2013 from 50 resources representing either traditional open back surgery or minimally invasive spine surgery. Each resource was assessed using 10 scales from Readability Studio Professional Edition version 2012.1.
Patient education resources representing traditional open back surgery or minimally invasive spine surgery were all found to be written at a level well above the recommended 6th grade level. In general, minimally invasive spine surgery materials were written at a higher grade level.
The readability of patient education resources from spine surgery websites exceeds the average reading ability of an American adult. Revisions may be warranted to increase quality and patient comprehension of these resources to effectively reach a greater patient population.
互联网已成为向大量人群传播健康信息的广泛来源。脊柱手术的情况也是如此。鉴于脊柱手术的复杂性，一个需要考虑的重要问题是大多数美国人是否能够轻松阅读和理解这些资源。据估计，全国平均阅读年级水平约为七年级。在本研究中，作者致力于评估开放性脊柱手术资源和微创脊柱手术资源的可读性，以提供建议来帮助提高患者资源的可读性。
2013年从代表传统开放性背部手术或微创脊柱手术的50个资源中下载在线患者教育资源。每个资源使用Readability Studio Professional Edition 2012.1版的10个量表进行评估。
代表传统开放性背部手术或微创脊柱手术的患者教育资源均被发现其写作水平远高于推荐的六年级水平。一般来说，微创脊柱手术材料的写作水平更高。
脊柱手术网站上患者教育资源的可读性超过了美国成年人的平均阅读能力。可能需要进行修订以提高这些资源的质量和患者的理解程度，从而有效地覆盖更多患者群体。
