PATIENTS UNDERSTANDING OF HEALTH INFORMATION - A MULTIHOSPITAL COMPARISON

Patient education is an integral component of the care most hospital p atients receive. The use of printed health material is widespread due to its perceived benefit and convenience. Unfortunately, there is a di screpancy between reading level of many materials selected for patient s and the reading ability of the intended reader group. Although resea rch suggests the need for simplified text, ease of reading is only one component of readability; the other is comprehension. This article pr esents results from a study completed in 1990 and replicated in two ho spitals the following year. Using a Cloze technique, researchers teste d patient's ability to understand health information prepared at grade levels five and nine. Scores revealed that 77% of subjects were able to comprehend material prepared at the grade five level independently, 8% required some assistance, and 14% were not able to comprehend the material. When comprehension of the material prepared at the grade nin e level was tested only 30% of subjects were able to comprehend it, 31 % required some help, and 39% were unable to comprehend it. These resu lts suggest the importance of simplifying health material to no higher than a grade five level so it is comprehensive to the majority of hos pital patients.