title: [Global analysis of the readability of the informed consent forms used in public hospitals of Spain].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyse the readability of informed consent forms (ICF) used in Public Hospitals throughout Spain, with the aim of checking their function of providing comprehensive information to people who are making any health decision no matter where they are in Spain.
  
  
  METHODS
  A descriptive study was performed on a total of 11,339 ICF received from all over Spanish territory, of which 1617 ICF were collected from 4 web pages of Health Portal and the rest (9722) were received through email and/or telephone contact from March 2012 to February 2013. The readability level was studied using the Inflesz tool. A total of 372 ICF were selected and analysed using simple random sampling. The Inflesz scale and the Flesch-Szigriszt index were used to analyse the readability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The readability results showed that 62.4% of the ICF were rated as a "little difficult", the 23.4% as "normal", and the 13.4% were rated as "very difficult". The highest readability means using the Flesch index were scored in Andalusia with a mean of 56.99 (95% CI; 55.42-58.57) and Valencia with a mean of 51.93 (95% CI; 48.4-55.52). The lowest readability means were in Galicia with a mean of 40.77 (95% CI; 9.83-71.71) and Melilla, mean=41.82 (95% CI; 35.5-48.14).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The readability level of Spanish informed consent forms must be improved because their scores using readability tools could not be classified in normal scales. Furthermore, there was very wide variability among Spanish ICF, which showed a lack of equity in information access among Spanish citizens.
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Huelva, Facultad de Enfermería, máster en Ciencias de la Enfermería, Huelva, España.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Mariscal-Crespo
authors.affiliation: Centro de Salud Navarra, Teruel, España.
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Coronado-Vázquez
authors.affiliation: Universidad de Huelva, máster en Ciencias de la Enfermería, Villafranca de los Barros, Badajoz, España. Electronic address: valleramirez@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Ramirez-Durán
mesh_terms: D032882:Comprehension; D032962:Consent Forms / Q000592:standards*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D013030:Spain
keywords: Comprehension; Comprensión; Consentimiento informado; Ethics; Informed consent; Legibilidad; Readability; Ética