Scott Benjamin B, Johnson Anna Rose, Doval Andres F, Tran Bao N, Lee Bernard T
Department of General Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Vasc Endovascular Surg. 2020 Feb;54(2):111-117. doi: 10.1177/1538574419879855. Epub 2019 Oct 13.
Patients commonly use online materials as a source of health information. Since poor health literacy has been shown to correlate with negative outcomes, it is recommended that patient-directed materials be written at a sixth-grade reading level. This study evaluates the readability and understandability of commonly accessed online materials pertaining to both endovascular and open repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Searches for "endovascular repair abdominal aortic aneurysm" and "open repair abdominal aortic aneurysm" were performed on both Google and Bing, and the top 10 websites from each search engine were identified. Relevant websites (total N = 28, endovascular n = 15, open n = 15, and 2 redundant sites) with patient-directed content were analyzed. Readability was assessed using 9 established methods, and understandability was assessed using the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool scoring system.
The average reading grade level for all sites was 12.8. Endovascular sites averaged a reading grade level of 13.6 with a range from 11.5 to 15.6. Open-repair websites had a grade-level average of 12.1 with a range from 9.9 to 14.1. Readability was found to be inversely related to understandability, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of -0.551 ( = .003). No website was written at or below the recommended sixth-grade reading level.
Patient-directed online health information pertaining to open and endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysm exceeds the recommended sixth-grade reading level. Increasing complexity of health literature correlates with poor understandability. Modifications such as shorter sentences, fewer words with more than 6 letters, and increasing usage of clear visual aids can increase readability and understandability.
患者通常将网络资料作为健康信息来源。鉴于健康素养低下已被证明与不良后果相关，建议面向患者的资料应以六年级阅读水平编写。本研究评估了腹主动脉瘤血管内修复和开放修复相关常见网络资料的可读性和可理解性。
在谷歌和必应上搜索“腹主动脉瘤血管内修复”和“腹主动脉瘤开放修复”，确定每个搜索引擎排名前十的网站。对有面向患者内容的相关网站（共28个，血管内修复相关15个，开放修复相关15个，2个重复网站）进行分析。使用9种既定方法评估可读性，使用患者教育材料评估工具评分系统评估可理解性。
所有网站的平均阅读年级水平为12.8。血管内修复相关网站平均阅读年级水平为13.6，范围为11.5至15.6。开放修复相关网站的年级水平平均为12.1，范围为9.9至14.1。发现可读性与可理解性呈负相关，皮尔逊相关系数为-0.551（P = .003）。没有网站是以或低于推荐的六年级阅读水平编写的。
腹主动脉瘤开放修复和血管内修复相关的面向患者的在线健康信息超过了推荐的六年级阅读水平。健康文献复杂性增加与可理解性差相关。诸如缩短句子、减少六个以上字母的单词数量以及增加清晰视觉辅助工具的使用等修改可以提高可读性和可理解性。
