MP02-05 READABILITY METRICS OF PROVIDER POST-OPERATIVE HANDOUTS IN UROLOGY

Abstract

You have accessJournal of UrologyGeneral & Epidemiological Trends & Socioeconomics: Practice Patterns, Quality of Life and Shared Decision Making I (MP02)1 Apr 2020MP02-05 READABILITY METRICS OF PROVIDER POST-OPERATIVE HANDOUTS IN UROLOGY Fei Lian*, Jennifer Lu, Mark White, and Barry Kogan Fei Lian*Fei Lian* More articles by this author , Jennifer LuJennifer Lu More articles by this author , Mark WhiteMark White More articles by this author , and Barry KoganBarry Kogan More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1097/JU.0000000000000816.05AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookLinked InTwitterEmail Abstract INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends writing patient materials at a sixth-grade level for ease of reading and understanding. The readability of provider-given postoperative urology handouts was examined to assess for areas of improvement. We hypothesize that the majority of provider handouts exceed the NIH target. As a secondary outcome, we looked at whether difficult words and word count correlated with readability. METHODS: We assessed 220 post-operative patient handouts in the public domain representing academic and private practices in the United States. All handouts were individually reviewed, categorized, and re-formatted into text in Microsoft Word. A median reading grade was calculated using the Readability.io web application using commonly used assessment tools: Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, Coleman-Liau Index, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook, and Automated-Reading Index. Also assessed were word and sentence count, Dale-Chall and Spache difficult words, and unique word count. Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used for statistical analysis with significance set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: Provider post-operative handouts were written at a median 9.3 grade reading level (range 5.8-14, interquartile range [IQR] 8.45-10, p < 0.00001). A total of 15 (6.8%) handouts were written at a sixth-grade reading level, with only 1 (0.4%) handout written below the NIH target. Six (2.7%) handouts were written at college-level. Median word count was 509 (range 90-3796, IQR 361-738). Median Dale-Chall count was 131 difficult words (range 32-1090, IQR 101-190) and median Spache count was 120 difficult words (range 38 to 657, IQR 92-148). Reading grade level did not correlate with word count nor prevalence of difficult words (Pearson correlation coefficient 0.015 and 0.108 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our research data shows over 93% of analyzed post-operative urology handouts failed to meet the recommended NIH target for grade level, confirming our hypothesis. Surprisingly, longer word count handouts did not correlate to a higher reading level in this data set. Harder-to-read urology handouts may affect patient outcomes after surgery. Further studies may randomize patients to various grades of written handouts to assess for differences in comprehension, patient satisfaction and outcome. Source of Funding: None © 2020 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 203Issue Supplement 4April 2020Page: e12-e13 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2020 by American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc.MetricsAuthor Information Fei Lian* More articles by this author Jennifer Lu More articles by this author Mark White More articles by this author Barry Kogan More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...