Kelsey Leonard Grabeel|Jennifer Russomanno|Sandy Oelschlegel|Emily Tester|R. Eric Heidel
Computerized versus hand-scored health literacy tools: a comparison of Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and Flesch-Kincaid in printed patient education materials
University of Tennessee Medical Center|University of Tennessee at Knoxville|University of Tennessee Medical Center|University of Tennessee at Knoxville|University of Tennessee Medical Center|University of Tennessee at Knoxville|University of Tennessee Medical Center|University of Tennessee at Knoxville|University of Tennessee Medical Center|University of Tennessee at Knoxville
objective research compared contrasted handscoring computerized methods evaluating grade level patient education materials distributed academic medical center east tennessee sought determine materials adhered american medical associations amas recommended reading level sixth grademethods librarians academic medical center located heart appalachian tennessee initiated assessment 150 used printed patient education materials based fleschkincaid fk scoring rubric 2 150 documents excluded statistical comparisons due absence text images researchers assessed remaining 148 documents using handscored simple measure gobbledygook smog method computerized fk grade level method smog 3 independent reviewers handscored 150 documents fk documents analyzed using microsoft word reading grade levels scores entered database statistical analysis interrater reliability calculated using intraclass correlation coefficients icc paired ttests used compare readability meansresults acceptable interrater reliability found smog icc095 148 documents assessed smog produced significantly higher mean reading grade level m96 sd13 fk m65 sd13 plt0001 additionally using smog method assessment 147 148 documents 993 scored amas recommended reading level sixth gradeconclusions computerized health literacy assessment tools used many national patient education material providers might representative actual reading grade levels patient education materials problematic regions like appalachia materials may comprehensible areas lowliteracy patients medical librarians potential advance role patient education better serve patient populations