John O. Elliott|Bassel F. Shneker
A health literacy assessment of the epilepsy.com website
The Ohio State University|The Ohio State University
current healthcare guidelines identify low health literacy major barrier optimal health communication health literacy defined degree individuals obtain process understand basic health information services needed make appropriate health decisions estimated 90 million people us marginal health literacy institute medicine us department education recommend health related information written 6th8th grade level address low health literacy epidemiological studies demonstrate persons epilepsy significantly lower educational attainment lower incomes placing risk low health literacy limited internet access internet users tend higher educational attainment previous research indicates even good readers prefer simpler rather complex medical information health educational content could printed given patients addresses important need clinical epilepsy care previous reviews health websites found exceed recommended readability levels two online programs used assess reading level 1327 web pages wwwepilepsycom website using established readability formulas based flesch reading ease assessment 3 epilepsycom web pages written 6th grade reading level 8th grade level used standard 15 adequate recommendations examples provided improving readability epilepsyspecific health education content