title: A cross-section of readability of Health Information Portability and Accountability Act authorizations required with health care research.
abstract: The Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations require that agencies provide authorizations that can be read and understood. Agencies are responsible to comply with this regulation. It is estimated that half of Americans read at an eighth-grade reading level. All institutional review boards (IRBs) listed on the website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were contacted by investigators in this study. Fifty-one IRBs returned HIPAA templates on which readability tests could be completed. Three readability tests were used on all templates, including the Flesch Reading Ease formula, the Dale-Chall formula, and the Fry formula. For the returned templates, the mean of the Dale-Chall readability formula gave a ninth-grade level; the mean scores for the Flesch Reading Ease and Fry formulas were at a high-school reading level or above. The readability scores ranged from sixth-grade to college graduate. This study demonstrates that HIPAA authorization forms are written at too high a level for most of the population. Based on the results of this study and other similar studies, it can be concluded that consumers/patients are currently being asked to read important health-related documents that may be beyond their reading level.
authors.affiliation: Family and Consumer Sciences, Bradley University, 1501 W. Bradley, Peoria, IL 61625, USA. nina@bumail.bradley.edu
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Nancy L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Novotny
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Light
mesh_terms: D032882:Comprehension; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006266:Health Education; D020408:Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act / Q000941:ethics / Q000592:standards*; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States