title: Assessment of the Readability of Genetic Counseling Patient Letters.
abstract: Patient letters are a powerful tool that genetic counselors use to communicate with their patients. Patient letters are often sent to provide information on a new diagnosis, reiterate test results, and to serve as a permanent record of the visit. Patient letters, however, are only helpful if the patients can understand them. More than 50 % of the US population reads below a 9th grade reading level and over one-third of the population has low health literacy skills. In this study we evaluate the readability of genetic counseling patient letters by assessing reading level, image use, and terminology use. One hundred forty-nine genetic counselors participated in the survey and of these, 79 submitted a sample patient letter. Analyses of the letters revealed a mean reading level of 10.93. On average, 6 genetic terms were included in each letter, and only 25 % of these terms were defined. Analyses of survey responses revealed over 75 % of the genetic counselors did not include images in their patient letters. These results indicate there is room for improvement in order to make genetic counseling patient letters more accessible to the general population.
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland Genetic Counseling Program, Baltimore, MD, USA. ebrow102@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Megan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skinner
authors.affiliation: Center for Maternal and Fetal Medicine, Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ashley
authors.affiliation: Clinical and Continuing Education Program, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, USA.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Shannan DeLany
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Dixon
mesh_terms: D032882:Comprehension; D015709:Correspondence as Topic; D000072117:Counselors / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D005817:Genetic Counseling / Q000592:standards*; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Genetic counseling; Genomic literacy; Patient letters; Readability