University of Illinois at Chicago, 840 S. Wood St., CSB 915, MC 719, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA.
University of Illinois College of Pharmacy, 463 Westside Research Office Bldg. 1747 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Dec 7;18(1):1356. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-6278-8.
Lung cancer screening can reduce mortality but can be a complex, multi-step process. Poor health literacy is associated with unfavorable outcomes and decreased use of preventative services, so it is important to address barriers to care through efficient and practical education. The readability of lung cancer screening materials for patients is unknown and may not be at the recommended 6th grade reading level set by the American Medical Association. Our goals were to: (1) measure the health literacy of a lung cancer screening population from an urban academic medical center, and (2) examine the readability of online educational materials for lung cancer screening.
We performed a retrospective cross sectional study at a single urban academic center. Health literacy was assessed using three validated screening questions. To assess the readability of educational materials, we performed a Google search using the phrase, "What is lung cancer screening?" and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) formula was used to estimate the grade level required to understand the text.
There were 404 patients who underwent lung cancer screening during the study period. The prevalence of inadequate/marginal health literacy was 26.7-38.0%. Fifty websites were reviewed and four were excluded from analysis because they were intended for medical providers. The mean FKGL for the 46 websites combined was 10.6 ± 2.2.
Low health literacy was common and is likely a barrier to appropriate education for lung cancer screening. The current online educational materials regarding lung cancer screening are written above the recommended reading level set by the American Medical Association.
肺癌筛查可以降低死亡率，但过程可能较为复杂，步骤繁多。健康素养差与不良结局和预防性服务使用率降低有关，因此，通过高效实用的教育来解决护理障碍非常重要。肺癌筛查患者的材料可读性尚不清楚，可能未达到美国医学协会设定的 6 年级阅读水平。我们的目标是：（1）测量城市学术医疗中心肺癌筛查人群的健康素养，（2）检查肺癌筛查在线教育材料的可读性。
我们在一家城市学术中心进行了回顾性横断面研究。使用三个经过验证的筛选问题来评估健康素养。为了评估教育材料的可读性，我们使用短语“什么是肺癌筛查？”进行了谷歌搜索，并使用弗莱什-金凯德等级（FKGL）公式来估计理解文本所需的等级水平。
在研究期间，共有 404 名患者接受了肺癌筛查。健康素养不足/边缘的患病率为 26.7-38.0%。共审查了 50 个网站，其中 4 个因针对医疗提供者而被排除在分析之外。46 个网站的平均 FKGL 为 10.6±2.2。
低健康素养很常见，可能是肺癌筛查适当教育的障碍。当前关于肺癌筛查的在线教育材料的书写水平高于美国医学协会设定的推荐阅读水平。
