Michael Oliffe|Elaine Thompson|Jenny Johnston|Dianne Freeman|Hanish Bagga|Peter Wong
Assessing the readability and patient comprehension of rheumatology medicine information sheets: a cross-sectional Health Literacy Study
Mid Coast Hospital|UNSW Sydney|Southern Cross University|Mid Coast Hospital|Mid Coast Hospital|Mid Coast Hospital|UNSW Sydney
objectives patients often provided medicine information sheets mis however 60 patients low health literacy recommended readability level healthrelated information grade 8 sought assess readability mis given patients rheumatologists australia uk canada examine australian patient comprehension documents design crosssectional study setting communitybased regional rheumatology practice participants random sample patients attending rheumatology practice outcome measures readability mis assessed using readability formulae flesch reading ease formula simple measure gobbledygook scale forcast named authors ford caylor sticht gunning fog scale literal comprehension assessed asking patients read various australian mis immediately answer five simple multiple choice questions mis results mean sd grade level mis australia uk canada 11601 11801 9701 respectively flesch reading ease score australian 50806 uk 48515 mis classified documents fairly difficult difficult canadian mis 66110 classified standard five questions assessing comprehension correctly answered 921 patients adalimumab mis 711 methotrexate mis 628 nonsteroidal antiinflammatory mis 1011 prednisone mis 1324 abatacept mis conclusions readability mis used rheumatologists australia uk canada exceeds grade 8 level may explain patient literal comprehension documents may poor simpler shorter mis pictures infographics may improve patient comprehension may lead improved medication adherence better health outcomes