Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Ophthalmic Epidemiol. 2022 Apr;29(2):182-188. doi: 10.1080/09286586.2021.1910316. Epub 2021 Apr 8.
Current United States national guidelines recommend patient education materials (PEMs) be written at a 5-6 grade level. The objective of this study was to compare the readability of Spanish vision and eye health PEMs to nationally recommended reading levels and to English versions of the same PEMs.
PEMs were collected from seven online websites of vision-related organizations that provided PEMs with Spanish and English versions. PEMs were downloaded for text to be extracted and analyzed. Readability scoring was performed with Índice Flesch-Szigriszt, Spanish and English Lexile Text Analyzers, and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.
A total of 484 PEMs with Spanish and English versions were analyzed. Readability for Spanish PEMs was reported at or above the 6 grade level for 57% of articles based on Spanish Lexile scoring and 63% based on Índice Flesch-Szigriszt scoring. Readability for English PEMs was reported at or above the 6 grade level for 66% of articles based on English Lexile scoring and 75% based on Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scoring. Wilcoxon signed-rank test comparing grade levels translated from Lexile scores for Spanish and English versions of PEMs revealed that Spanish versions of PEMs required higher grade reading levels compared to English versions of PEMs ( < .001).
Spanish and English PEMs were written above nationally recommended reading levels. Online sources providing multilingual vision and eye health education should consider routinely monitoring PEMs to ensure reading levels meet the literacy needs of their audiences.
目前，美国国家指南建议患者教育材料（PEM）的写作水平应达到 5-6 年级。本研究的目的是将西班牙语视力和眼健康 PEM 的可读性与国家推荐的阅读水平以及相同 PEM 的英文版本进行比较。
从七个与视力相关的组织的在线网站收集 PEM，这些组织提供西班牙语和英语版本的 PEM。下载 PEM 以提取和分析文本。使用 Índice Flesch-Szigriszt、西班牙语和英语 Lexile 文本分析器以及 Flesch-Kincaid 年级水平进行可读性评分。
共分析了 484 篇具有西班牙语和英语版本的 PEM。根据西班牙语 Lexile 评分，57%的文章西班牙语 PEM 的可读性报告在 6 年级以上，63%的文章根据 Índice Flesch-Szigriszt 评分报告在 6 年级以上。根据英语 Lexile 评分，66%的文章英语 PEM 的可读性报告在 6 年级以上，75%的文章根据 Flesch-Kincaid 年级水平评分报告在 6 年级以上。比较 PEM 的西班牙语和英语版本的 Lexile 评分转换后的等级水平的 Wilcoxon 符号秩检验表明，西班牙语版本的 PEM 比英语版本的 PEM 需要更高的阅读等级（<0.001）。
西班牙语和英语 PEM 的写作水平高于国家推荐的阅读水平。提供多语言视力和眼健康教育的在线资源应考虑定期监测 PEM，以确保阅读水平满足其受众的识字需求。
