Readability estimates for commonly used health-related quality of life surveys.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate readability of seven commonly used health-related quality of life instruments: SF-36, HUI, EQ-5D, QWB-SA, HALex, Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ), and the NEI-VFQ-25.


METHODS
The Flesch-Kincaid (F-K) and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) formulae were used to estimate readability for every item in each measure.


RESULTS
The percentage of items that require more than 5 years of formal schooling according to F-K was 50 for the EQ-5D, 53 for the SF-36, 80 for the VFQ-25, 85 for the QWB-SA, 100 for the HUI, HALex, and the MLHFQ. The percentage of items deemed harder than "easy" according to FRE was 50 for the SF-36, 67 for the EQ-5D, 79 for the QWB-SA, 80 for the VFQ-25, 100 for the HUI, HALex, and the MLHFQ.


CONCLUSIONS
All seven surveys have a substantial number of items with high readability levels that may not be appropriate for the general population.
Paz
Sylvia H
SH
Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, USA. shpaz@ucla.edu
Liu
Honghu
H
Fongwa
Marie N
MN
Morales
Leo S
LS
Hays
Ron D
RD
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D002908:Chronic Disease; D032882:Comprehension; D004522:Educational Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D011788:Quality of Life; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*