COMPREHENSION IN PATIENT LITERATURE - THE IMPORTANCE OF TEXT AND READER CHARACTERISTICS

We summarize three studies of patients' comprehension of published mat erial. The analysis of patients' think-aloud and recall protocols sugg ested several text and reader characteristics that hindered text proce ssing and revealed that immediate recall was low. Text characteristics that hindered processing included lexical problems, violation of reco mmended standards of writing, and inadequate repetition or organizers. Reader characteristics that hindered processing included education le vel, vocabulary skills, and a conflict of pamphlet statements with rea ders' existing schemas.