Readability of patient information leaflets on antiepileptic drugs in the UK

The Audit Commission in the UK recommends that patient information leaflets (PILs) should be audited by health professionals using a formal readabilit y test. However, no such study on antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) has been ident ified in a Medline search. The aim of this study was to audit the readabili ty of PILs prepared for marketed proprietary AEDs in the UK. Twelve PILs we re compared with six antiepileptic drug articles from medical journals and six headline articles from UK newspapers. The Gunning Fog index and the Fle sch Reading Ease index were calculated for each PIL and article. The result s of the Gunning Fog index and the Flesch Reading Ease score were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test. PILs were shown to have a sta tistically significant lower mean reading age than the medical articles and newspapers (P < 0.001). The Gunning Fog index and Flesch Reading Ease scor e showed that PILs had a mean reading age of 8.8 and mean readability score of 69, respectively. In conclusion, the PILs prepared for proprietary anti epileptic drugs in the UK are suitable for the reading age of the general a dult population.