Are we effectively informing patients? A quantitative analysis of on-line patient education resources from the American Society of Neuroradiology.
OBJECTIVE
The ubiquitous use of the Internet by the public in an attempt to better understand their health care requires the on-line resources written at an appropriate level to maximize comprehension for the average user. The National Institutes of Health and the American Medical Association recommend on-line patient education resources written at a third-to-seventh grade level. We evaluated the readability of the patient education resources provided on the Web site of the American Society of Neuroradiology (http://www.asnr.org/patientinfo/).


METHODS
All patient education material from the ASNR Web site and the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery Web site were downloaded and evaluated with the computer software, Readability Studio Professional Edition, by using 10 quantitative readability scales: the Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, Coleman-Liau Index, Gunning Fog Index, New Dale-Chall, FORCAST Formula, Fry Graph, Raygor Reading Estimate, and New Fog Count. An unpaired t test was used to compare the readability level of resources available on the American Society of Neuroradiology and the Society of Neurointerventional Surgery Web sites.


RESULTS
The 20 individual patient education articles were written at a 13.9 ± 1.4 grade level with only 5% written at <11th grade level. There was no statistical difference between the level of readability of the resources on the American Society of Neuroradiology and Society of Neurointerventional Surgery Web sites.


CONCLUSIONS
The patient education resources on these Web sites fail to meet the guidelines of the National Institutes of Health and American Medical Association. Members of the public may fail to fully understand these resources and would benefit from revisions that result in more comprehensible information cast in simpler language.
From the Departments of Radiology (D.R.H., S.F.G., S.R.B.).
D R
DR
Hansberry
Neurological Surgery (N.A.), New Jersey Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey.
N
N
Agarwal
From the Departments of Radiology (D.R.H., S.F.G., S.R.B.).
S F
SF
Gonzales
From the Departments of Radiology (D.R.H., S.F.G., S.R.B.) bakersr@njms.rutgers.edu.
S R
SR
Baker
D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004521:Educational Measurement; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009862:Online Systems; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards; D015641:Radiography, Interventional / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012107:Research Design; D061108:Social Media / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States