Evaluating the efficacy of targeted written patient education materials in the improvement of understanding and outpatient follow-up compliance for retinopathy of prematurity

Abstract

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of preventable childhood blindness worldwide. Poor outpatient follow-up compliance in infants with ROP increases the risk of vision loss. Educating parents about ROP has the potential to significantly improve follow-up compliance. However, information currently available about ROP is written at an 11th grade level, despite NIH and AMA recommendations that patient education materials (PEM) be written at a 3rd-7th grade level. Our study investigates the effects of implementing newly developed PEM adherent to reading level recommendations on improving parent understanding of ROP and follow-up compliance.