College of Medicine, Department of Surgery, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.
College of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA.
Surg Endosc. 2024 Sep;38(9):5259-5265. doi: 10.1007/s00464-024-11042-z. Epub 2024 Jul 15.
Health literacy is the ability of individuals to use basic health information and services to make well-informed decisions. Low health literacy among surgical patients has been associated with nonadherence to preoperative and/or discharge instructions as well as poor comprehension of surgery. It likely poses as a barrier to patients considering foregut surgery which requires an understanding of different treatment options and specific diet instructions. The objective of this study was to assess and compare the readability of online patient education materials (PEM) for foregut surgery.
Using Google, the terms "anti-reflux surgery, "GERD surgery," and "foregut surgery" were searched and a total of 30 webpages from universities and national organizations were selected. The readability of the text was assessed with seven instruments: Flesch Reading Ease formula (FRE), Gunning Fog (GF), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Coleman Liau Index (CL), Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG), Automated Readability Index (ARI), and Linsear Write Formula (LWF). Mean readability scores were calculated with standard deviations. We performed a qualitative analysis gathering characteristics such as, type of information (preoperative or postoperative), organization, use of multimedia, inclusion of a version in another language.
The overall average readability of the top PEM for foregut surgery was 12th grade. There was only one resource at the recommended sixth grade reading level. Nearly half of PEM included some form of multimedia.
The American Medical Association and National Institute of Health have recommended that PEMs to be written at the 5th-6th grade level. The majority of online PEM for foregut surgery is above the recommended reading level. This may be a barrier for patients seeking foregut surgery. Surgeons should be aware of the potential gaps in understanding of their patients to help them make informed decisions and improve overall health outcomes.
健康素养是个人使用基本健康信息和服务做出明智决策的能力。手术患者的健康素养水平较低与不遵守术前和/或出院指导以及对手术理解不佳有关。对于考虑进行上消化道手术的患者来说，这可能是一个障碍，因为上消化道手术需要了解不同的治疗选择和特定的饮食指导。本研究的目的是评估和比较上消化道手术的在线患者教育材料 (PEM) 的可读性。
使用 Google 搜索“抗反流手术”、“GERD 手术”和“上消化道手术”，共选择了 30 个来自大学和国家组织的网页。使用七种工具评估文本的可读性：Flesch 阅读舒适度公式 (FRE)、Gunning Fog (GF)、Flesch-Kincaid 年级水平 (FKGL)、Coleman Liau 指数 (CL)、简单测词法 (SMOG)、自动阅读难度指数 (ARI)和 Linsear 写作公式 (LWF)。计算平均值和标准差。我们进行了定性分析，收集了信息类型（术前或术后）、组织、使用多媒体、包括其他语言版本等特征。
上消化道手术的顶级 PEM 的总体平均可读性为 12 年级。只有一个资源的阅读水平建议为六年级。近一半的 PEM 包含某种形式的多媒体。
美国医学协会和美国国立卫生研究院建议将 PEM 编写为 5-6 年级阅读水平。上消化道手术的大多数在线 PEM 都高于推荐的阅读水平。这可能是寻求上消化道手术的患者的障碍。外科医生应该意识到患者理解能力存在潜在差距，以帮助他们做出明智的决策并改善整体健康结果。
