READABILITY AND COMPREHENSIBILITY OF THE EXERCISE LITE BROCHURE

Studies suggest that exercise literature tends to be very difficult to read and the writing not matched to the reading ability of the audien ce for which it was intended. Two studies aimed at describing the read ability and comprehensibility of the recently developed U.S. Centers f or Disease Control and American College of Sports Medicine ''Exercise Lite'' brochure were conducted. In Study 1, the brochure's readability was assessed using four different formulas. This study showed that th e brochure was written at a level equivalent to that of a scientific j ournal article. In Study 2, 56 participants (two-thirds of whom were c ollege graduates) were tested to assess whether they could comprehend the brochure's message. Results showed that, without supplemental inst ruction, the Exercise Lite brochure was incomprehensible for 69.6% (n = 39) of the subjects.