Department of Surgery, Division of Urology, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY.
Albany Medical College, Albany, NY.
Urology. 2020 Dec;146:49-53. doi: 10.1016/j.urology.2020.08.044. Epub 2020 Sep 3.
To examine the readability of postoperative urology handouts and assess for areas of improvement. We hypothesize that the majority of provider handouts exceed the National Institutes of Health recommendation of writing at a sixth-grade reading level.
We reviewed 238 postoperative patient handouts in the public domain representing United States academic and private practices. All handouts were categorized and re-formatted into text-only using Microsoft Word. A median reading grade was calculated using the Readability.io web application using Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog index, Coleman-Liau index, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, and Automated-Reading Index. Word count was also assessed.
Provider handouts were written at a median 9.3 grade reading level (range 5.8-14, IQR 8.45-10). A total of 15 (6.8%) handouts were written at a sixth-grade reading level, with only 1 (0.4%) handout written below the target. Six (2.7%) handouts were written at college-level. There were no significant differences between different subspecialties. Median word count was 509 (range 90-3796, IQR 361-738). Although a high word count may make it more difficult for patients to follow suggestions, the readability of each handout did not correlate with word count.
Our data show that over 93% of analyzed handouts failed to meet National Institutes of Health recommendations for grade level. Longer word counts did not correlate with higher reading levels. It will be important to assess patient satisfaction with handouts and to correlate the complexity of postoperative handouts with outcome, such as unplanned phone calls and unscheduled visits.
检查泌尿科术后手册的可读性，并评估需要改进的地方。我们假设，大多数医生提供的手册超过了美国国立卫生研究院（NIH）建议的六年级阅读水平。
我们在公共领域中回顾了 238 份代表美国学术和私人实践的术后患者手册。所有的手册都进行了分类，并使用 Microsoft Word 重新格式化为纯文本。使用 Readability.io 网络应用程序，根据弗莱什-金凯德（Flesch-Kincaid）阅读水平、格宁 fog 指数、科尔曼-廖（Coleman-Liau）指数、简单测量胡言乱语（Simple Measure of Gobbledygook）和自动阅读指数（Automated-Reading Index）计算中位数阅读等级。还评估了字数。
医生提供的手册的阅读水平中位数为 9.3 级（范围为 5.8-14，IQR 为 8.45-10）。共有 15 份（6.8%）手册的阅读水平为六年级，只有 1 份（0.4%）低于目标。6 份（2.7%）手册的阅读水平为大学水平。不同专业之间没有显著差异。中位数字数为 509（范围 90-3796，IQR 361-738）。虽然高字数可能使患者更难遵循建议，但每个手册的可读性与字数无关。
我们的数据表明，超过 93%的分析手册不符合 NIH 对阅读水平的建议。较长的字数与较高的阅读水平没有相关性。评估患者对手册的满意度，并将术后手册的复杂性与未计划的电话和未预约的就诊相关联，这将非常重要。
